These Are the Weeks That Try Jewish Women’s Souls

There are two different types of women that other women hate – those who are naturally thin, and those that love to clean.

I will take a huge risk here (hoping against hope that I don’t lose most of my female readers) and admit that I fit into the first category. I keep my friends by being solidly the opposite of the second. Women who visit my house always leave in a chipper mood – either because they think to themselves “wow, I thought my house was a mess, but now that I’ve seen westbankmama’s house mine doesn’t seem too bad” or, if they are just as messy as I am, they are happy to find a soul mate! (No, I do not have a cleaning lady. The idea of someone else cleaning my dirt bothers me no end, although I understand why women who work full time need one).

This means that the weeks between Purim and Pesach (Passover) are very hard for me. I have a halachic (Jewish law) obligation to clean my house of chametz (leavened products), so I clean, but I hate every minute. Every year I try to find the right way to minimize the torture. Sometimes I organize myself down to the last little detail, and write down in my diary exactly what things I am going to clean when (and I actually stick to the schedule). Sometimes the procrastination demon takes over and I leave too much to the last minute (although there are some who swear by this method. They think to themselves, “why should I ruin four weeks with cleaning when I can just ruin one?”)

I haven’t figured out how to go about it this year. I have less time at home, now, because I am working. On the other hand, Fridays are still free.

And yes, I KNOW that dirt is not chametz. This is the refrain that men say over and over to their wives in order to try to get out of helping with the cleaning. The only thing this really applies to is windows, and the bathrooms. Everywhere else in the house is a potential site for chametz!

I really enjoyed reading RenReb last year at this time. Her rants about Pesach cleaning were therapeutic. I’m just waiting for some brilliant Jewish woman to open the Pesach cleaning hotline, with experts in psychological trauma on hand to calm us down. Until then I guess I’ll have to stick to reading blogs.