The Shaatra Club is a company started by Jill Dushey in 2015. The company’s main product is My Day, a Jewish Women’s Planner. Each page in the yearly planner has slots to plan each hour like an ordinary planner, however it’s the extras that make it special. Each day in the book has the English and Hebrew dates, a quote of the day, a ‘Whats for dinner?’ slot, a slot to jot down a note of gratitude for each day, and much more. Additionally, the calendar features important Jewish reminders for that day including candle lighting times for Shabbat and Holidays.

The calendar not only assists with organizing tasks on a day-to-day basis, but also helps people plan and organize on a monthly basis as well. January has a Winter Bucket List which includes cute winter activities to try. February has a 30-Day Cleaning Plan in which it lists one task to do each day of the month so by the end of the month you can boast an immaculate home. March has a Purim planner. This page includes a slot for a Mishloach Manot lists for friends and family you plan to gift, a costume list slot, and a Seudah menu slot. Additionally this page has a handy checklist to assure you fulfilled all the Mitzvot of the day.

All of these features make it the ultimate planner for a Jewish housewife!

“I loved the weekly Perasha notes and the monthly challenges like the 30 day cleaning plan or the purim checklist,” said housewife and college student Millie Marcus. “It includes all the features you could only get in a Jewish planner, with a bunch of room to jot daily tasks. You can tell the creator really knew her audience well and what they needed.”

Jill has some unique ideas when it comes to being prepared for Passover as well. With the upcoming holiday of Passover and all that needs to be done to prepare for it, it’s good to plan accordingly. Here are some Passover preparation and cleaning tips from Shaatra Club’s Jill Dushey.

1. Before you start cleaning, devise a game plan.

If you plan a way to tackle your whole house in advance, you can end up only doing one room a day and by the end of a week, your done! If you do this early enough, you can manage to break it up so that you can do less in a day by breaking up the tasks even more.

For example, instead of saving the kitchen cleaning for one day, assign a few simple tasks for this room, such as going through the pantry and koshering the utensils you’ll be needing. The next day, you can kosher the oven and microwave and so on.

The number one thing to remember is DO NOT wait until last minute. It may be intimidating, but get started early and tackle it head-on. You’ll be glad you did.

2. Know the difference between spring cleaning and Passover cleaning.

A simple way to attain this knowledge is to listen to Rabbi classes on the topic while your driving in the car or washing dishes etc. You don’t have to stop your day to listen to a class, you can multitask!

You can learn some vital time-saving information this way. People tend to get paranoid and over-do Passover cleaning. Know what must to be cleaned and detailed for Passover so you can differentiate what might fall under the spring cleaning list that can wait.

3. Hire help.

If you don’t already have a housekeeper daily or weekly, consider hiring one for at least one or two days before Passover. The extra hands will be an immense help if your on a time crunch, overwhelmed, or are just not so confident in your own cleaning abilities.

4. If you’re on a budget, space out your spending over time.

Instead of doing one major shopping trip right before the holiday and spending hundreds of dollars at once, try to plan ahead. From at least one month in advance, make your major shopping list.

Then, every time you go shopping, buy a few things from the list and try to limit buying non-perishable Hametz. By the time the holiday comes around, you should have accumulated enough of the non-perishable items on your list and you’ll just need a last minute fruit, dairy, meat, and veggie run to complete your whole list! This enables a stress free holiday shopping experience and your wallet will thank you!

To find out more about the Shaatra Club, follow @Shaatraclub in Instagram!

Frieda Schweky

Frieda@sephardic.org

Frieda Schweky is Sephardic.Org's official community events reporter. For inquiries and to get involved with our site, please contact Frieda via email.