I remember motzei Shemini Atzeret last year – out first inclination was to wait to put away the schach from the sukkah until some later point. The reasoning behind this was mainly that we were too lazy to put it away right away. In the end though, we put it away that night, with the reasoning that it is “better not to be lazy” and that since we just prayed for rain a few hours ago, we are asking for nothing but trouble (and mold) by leaving the schach up until some point in the future. So we took it down. And sure enough, at 8 in the morning on the day after Shemini Atzeret (when those in chutz la’aretz were in day #2), we had a humongous downpour (boy were we glad that we took the schach down the night before).

So tonight, after having the same conversation, and making the same arguments for and against (with the addition of “look what happened last year), we are now going out to take down the schach. Isru Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!