Here's How Many Calories You Burn While Cleaning

Have you ever wondered how many calories you burn doing basic household chores? It’s more than you may think! As long as you’re moving, you’re doing your body a favour. Whether it be sweeping, mopping or doing the dishes, you’re burning calories!

The exact number of calories you burn depends on your weight and height, but we’ve based this off a 75kg adult doing half an hour of each activity.

Washing the dishes for half an hour, including time spent standing, a little bit of walking and setting them down to dry can burn up to 71 calories. 

Depending on how vigorous you’re getting with the broom you could burn anywhere from 91 to 130 calories sweeping for half an hour. 

Carrying in the groceries may as well be strength training in itself, but spending half an hour carrying those heavy bags in and putting them away can get you burning up to 98 calories. 

Mopping can be quite a vigorous activity! Including wetting the mop, mopping and squeezing out the dirty water, mopping for half an hour can burn up to 97 calories. 

One of the most vigorous and disliked household tasks is a real calorie burner! Scrubbing takes some intensity, and half an hour of washing the windows could have you burning up to 126 calories.

Some vacuums are heavier than others, and some have stronger suction! But your standard vacuum (including lugging it around with you) can burn up to 130 calories – even more than scrubbing windows! 

A task we all put off for as long as we can because it requires a lot of effort. The effort pays off though as this one takes the cake for most calories burnt – half an hour of washing the car can burn up to 138 calories!

So, there you have it! Doing basic household chores is basically light-to-moderate exercise. If you're on a weight loss journey maybe this will motivate you to keep your home spick-and-span! While you're at it, why not get the whole family involved to help them stay healthy too!