Last night Tuvia and I met with the rabbi (along with another couple), where the rabbi suggested that Tuvia just kasher the heck out of his kitchen for Pesach and keep on going from there. For me? Well, I keep a vegetarian kitchen out of my dorm room, so it isn't so much an issue, but it isn't kashered. So the both of us, with the urging of the rabbi and our own consciences, will be kashering our kitchens before Pesach. Mine is a bit easier than his, since all I have is a Toaster Oven (impossible to kasher l'pesach), a microwave oven, a coffee maker, and a refrigerator. So we're enlisting a friend of our's to help kasher Tuvia's place sometime in the next two weeks. In the meantime? We purge.
For the longest time I've been one of those kosher-style folk who will eat something even if it's not heckschered as long as all of the ingredients look legit. But no more! If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. And I'm going to do it right (what does "right" really mean anyway?). So I went through my meager supply of food and got rid of everything that I didn't think I was going to eat before kashering (or before Pesach) that wasn't heckschered. Now, I didn't just chuck it. I put it out in the lounge with a note that it's free for the taking (leaving free food for starving, poor college kids is tzedakah right?).
I have the OU Pesach guide, with all of my kashering knowledge needs, so I'll be going that route. I don't trust myself to kasher a full kitchen (thank G-d for friends!), but my little nook should be doable. Chametz cleaning might kill me, since I'm a big consumer of cereal, bread, and other chametzdik items, but it'll be fun, I think. I usually just get rid of everything in my place that is chametzdik
Pesach shopping, on the other hand, is going to be a pain in the tuches. I've usually just bought kosher-style food, not actual heckschered stuff. I dread buying pasta sauce and mozarella cheese (for matzo pizza), jelly and other simple items. I was going to go on a trek down to Monsey with some folks from shul on Sunday, but because of yesterday's meeting with the professor, my Sunday will be devoted to writing something I won't be embarrassed about. So instead I'll be shopping it up at Waldbaum's this year, and after looking through my archives from last year ... I had a moment of pure joy. Almost lust. For what? Kosher l'Pesach Coca Cola. OH MAN. I'm going to buy some on Saturday, and maybe drink it early. I don't drink soda, but when I do, it's usually the non-HFCS kind.
At any rate, back to my cleaning and purging and making sure I order the appropriate items from TheKosherCook.com. Yes, I have a vegetarian/dairy kitchen, but some things I want to keep pareve. There's a ton of stuff I've had in this room for months that I haven't used (glass, in fact), so it'll come in handy when I get to actually kashering things. If anyone has any tips ... lemme know.
Some concluding chametz-style food for thought?
The numerical value of chometz (חמץ) is 138. This is the same as the numerical value for pegimah (פגימה), the word for blemish. Whoever eats chometz on Pesach thus blemishes his neshoma. --Rabbi Yaakov Culi