Setting up your Pesach Control Journal

(updated 4/18/22)

Being successful in preparing for Pesach depends a lot on being organized. There are so many details to keep straight with cleaning, shopping, meal planning, cooking, guests, etc. In my single days Pesach was much simpler because I didn’t have guests. I went out for all my Yom Tov and Shabbos meals and had a much smaller place to clean.

With each year and each child, Pesach preparations became more complicated. I started out with a spiral of notes of grocery lists for each year and my cleaning list. Eventually that spiral was not enough.

Now I have my typed list which you saw in my post “Pesach is coming!” Each year I add a few things to it and make notes of what worked and didn’t work, what other things needed to be done, etc.

But the list alone is not enough either. Now I have a Pesach Control Journal (to borrow a term from Flylady), which is basically a binder of all my Pesach information. The following are the sections included:

Pesach Prep:
– my Pesach Prep list and the ebooks I bought from Rivka Slatkin, of “Review: Jewish-LIfe-Organized.com”
– class notes from various Pesach cleaning classes I have been to with one of our wonderful local rabbis
– various articles on Laws of Erev Pesach, Kashering, and Selling Chometz that i have collected from various sources

Reference lists and Shopping guides:
– like the one I told you about from CRC which lists products that are acceptable without Passover certification, what must bear a reliable Passover certification, and what is not acceptable for Passover. Also includes several articles from the OU Passover guide. See my previous post “Pesach is coming!” for the links to these resources.

Tips:
– includes an article on purchasing Chometz after Pesach

You may have other resources you like — these are just some ideas to get your started or to round out what you already have.

Related articles:

• Let the Pesach Prep Begin! (lifeinthemarriedlane.com)
• Budgeting Basics: How To Tips for Passover Budgeting (kosheronabudget.com)