House work the dreaded disease that we all try to avoid every day.  We hate to do house work and avoid it much as possible.  In fact we put it off till it gets unbearable.  But eventually our home does need a little love and care.  But, did you know doing house work can be beneficial to your health and burn calories at the same time?  Most consumers do not look at it this way.  The number of calories each person burns during housecleaning varies by each individual and is based on weight and duration of time.  The more vigorous you work and the longer you work, more calories you will burn.  Just keep in mind that it’s good for your body as well, maybe that would make the task much easier for you to tackle.  Play your favorite music to help motivate you even more, music always puts us in a good mood.

Different types of housework that burn calories:

  • Vacuuming carpets, Sweeping floors, mopping floors burns 240 calories per hour.  It workouts your upper and lower body.
  • Window cleaning inside and out
  • Doing laundry and folding them
  • Ironing your clothes
  • Dusting blinds, fans and furniture 165 calories per hour
  • Changing linens on beds
  • Taking out the trash and bagging them
  • Scrubbing your toilets, bathtubs, showers, sinks and countertops 231 calories per hour
  • Dishwashing, drying and putting them up
  • Bathing dogs and walking your dogs
  • Walking around your home and going up and down your stairs
  • Gardening –more digging, raking, bending, squatting more calories burned.  Sweating in the heat is an added benefit.
  • Mowing the lawn front and back 363 calories per hour
  • Painting your house 297 calories per hour
  • Cooking and baking 165 per hour
  • Washing your cars and drying them
  • Playing with your children an added bonus for spending quality time together.
  • Shoveling snow
  • Cleaning gutters
  • Painting your fence
  • Working on cars and doing oil changes
  • Packing boxes
  • Putting up Christmas lights and decorations
  • Chopping wood and piling them up

There are so many household chores we do every day that helps us burn calories on a daily basis.  We do not think about them because it’s something we are so accustomed to doing without thinking, like eating and sleeping.   I’m not saying not to go to the gym and work out from time to time but don’t feel so guilty and beat yourself up for not going.  We are so hard on yourselves already.  We all live busy lives with work and family, who has time to do anything else?  Remember throughout the day you are already burning calories.  Before you go to bed every night you probably already burned a lot of calories without you knowing about.  No need to go to the gym when you can burn calories doing household chores. Might make you clean your house more often.  So, remember you can have a clean house along with burning some calories at the same time.  How wonderful is that?