RETHINK Housework

Cleaning is hard work and while breaking a sweat doing housework won’t manage your weight, any kind of physical activity does count. Depending on your intensity and current weight, housework can burn up to 250 calories an hour. All housework is not created equal though.

Here’s a breakdown of activities and how many calories are burned on average per hour:

  • Scrubbing floors on hands and knees: 325 cal
  • Heavy cleaning (vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, repetitive bending over): 250 cal
  • General cleaning (washing dishes, doing laundry, making beds): 200 cal
  • Light cleaning (wiping counters, tidying up, dusting): 100 cal
  • Raking lawn: Before you drop your gym membership to wash the windows, it’s important to note that chores aren’t a replacement for regular workouts. It’s easy to overestimate the amount of calories you’ve burned doing housework, resulting in eating extra calories. Mopping today doesn’t cancel out a piece of cheesecake later, but it does help towards your goal for daily physical activity and beats the couch for burning calories. 235 cal

"Vacuums don’t clean houses. People clean houses." - Everybody Loves Raymond