You could say I cleaned my kitchen for Passover yesterday. Or you could say I did this.

1. Wiped and cleaned down display shelves; walked to various places around the house putting things where they should go (books in their owner's rooms; sunglasses, too; assorted wires and chargers in his junk drawer).

2. Cleaned 8 dining room chairs and the accompanying table.

3. Started making a pile of chametz things by the porch door that were going out to the shed. Cookbooks and challah board were first.

4. Designated which cabinets in the kitchen would hold our Pesach stuff.

5. Moved all the stuff out of those cabinets and stuffed them into other cabinets.

6. Cleaned butcher block island; added more stuff to chametz pile.

7. Cleaned out really annoying corner cabinets that I had to crawl into to get to get to everything. Founds tons of paper cups, napkins and assorted stuff that I keep buying new thinking I had run out.

8. Went out to the porch, emptied a plastic closet in the shed, hosed it down to clean it, left it there to dry.

9. Did I mention 4 loads of laundry? (True not a kitchen chore, but I thought you should know).

10. Cleaned the microwave. (yeah, I should do that more often).

11. Cleaned the toaster oven. Put it in the going-to-the-shed pile.

12. Put everything in the pile in the shed.

13. Swept and washed the dining room floor.

14. Moved the plastic closet into the dining area.

15. Washed, dried and put away remaining dishes.

16. Scrubbed the counters.

17. Scrubbed the sink.

18. Swept and washed the kitchen floor. (Several times; it was really gross).

19. Poured boiling water over the counters (you're right, I should have done that before I washed the floor).

20. Covered the sink with Israeli heavy duty aluminum foil. Which means it's not.

21. Shlepped the Pesach stuff (which had been placed in the family room a few days ago) into the kitchen.

22. Found a space for most of the stuff.

I started at 10 a.m. and finished at 7 p.m. (Yeah, I took some short breaks. Sue me.) When Isaac came home from work at 8:30 p.m., he said to me, "Why didn't you wait for me, we could have done it together?"

So yes, we are commanded to observe Passover for 7 days, but here at Casa Baila, we are very stringent--we're doing 11.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Pesach.