Is Your Sukkah Already a Mess? 5 Easy Ways to Keep It Clean

The sukkah may feel like another room of the house during Sukkot, but unfortunately, it doesn’t stay clean like one.

Between leaves blowing in, crumbs from holiday meals, kids’ games, decorations, dust, and unpredictable weather, a beautifully prepared sukkah can start looking messy surprisingly quickly. And with everything else happening over the holiday, nobody wants to spend every morning cleaning it from top to bottom.

The good news is that a few simple habits can keep the mess under control without turning Sukkot into a weeklong cleaning project.

Choose Decorations That Can Handle the Outdoors

Those beautiful paper chains and children’s crafts may look perfect when you first hang them, but outdoor conditions can quickly take their toll. Humidity, rain, and wind can damage paper decorations or send poorly secured ones flying around the sukkah.

If you have handmade decorations you especially want to preserve, consider protecting them or bringing them inside when bad weather is expected. When hanging decorations, make sure they are securely attached so that a windy afternoon doesn’t leave you collecting them from around the yard.

Give Everything a Home

Somehow, everything finds its way into the sukkah: toys, card games, siddurim, sweaters, napkins, books, and whatever else the family has brought outside.

Instead of letting these items slowly take over the table and chairs, place a basket or storage box in one corner of the sukkah. Encourage everyone to put their belongings there when they aren’t using them. It takes almost no effort, but immediately makes the space feel calmer and more organized.

Clear the Table Right After Eating

After a long Yom Tov meal, it can be tempting to leave the dishes and promise yourself you’ll deal with them later. Unfortunately, “later” tends to become much more unpleasant when food has dried onto plates and crumbs have attracted insects.

Try to clear dishes, food, disposable items, and serving platters as soon as the meal is finished. Give the table a quick wipe and sweep up any obvious crumbs. You don’t need to do a full cleaning session after every meal; the goal is simply to prevent small messes from becoming bigger ones.

Keep an Eye on the Weather

An outdoor room requires a little more planning than an indoor one. If rain or strong winds are in the forecast, take a few minutes to bring inside anything that could be damaged, soaked, or blown away.

This is especially helpful for cushions, books, games, paper goods, and decorations you want to reuse. Keeping a large basket nearby can make it easy to gather everything quickly rather than running back and forth to the house when the weather suddenly changes.

End the Evening With a Five-Minute Reset

This may be the simplest trick of all.

Before everyone heads inside for the night, spend five minutes resetting the sukkah. Throw away trash, return games and toys to their basket, straighten the chairs, remove dishes and food, and clear anything from the table that doesn’t need to stay outside.

Five minutes at night can save you from walking into a much bigger mess the next morning.

The sukkah is meant to be lived in and enjoyed, so it certainly doesn’t need to look perfect throughout the holiday. With a little organization and a few quick habits, however, you can spend less time cleaning it and more time actually enjoying Sukkot.