I own a business, have a 6 year old and have all the other stuff that goes with running a household .... like everyone else. I am on a calorie counting weigh down, but to get in the hour exercise sometimes is not always easy with everything else going on .... So, I knock out two birds with one stone ... One hour of house cleaning per day burns the same amount of calories as one hour of walking for me. So, I have been making an effort to use house cleaning as my exercise. I can really build up a sweat when I am purposeful about it, and when I am done, I have a clean house and my exercise done for the day. There is ALWAYS something to do around the house. Cleaning bathrooms, floors, sweeping porches, vacuuming, dusting, changing linens, laundry, windows, yard-work. O.k., I admit, most people do not like house cleaning, but for me, I don't mind it actually. Anyone else?

I do the EXACT same thing and i too count it as exercise. I do 30 minutes of cardio or balance ball then 30-45 of deep house cleaning...depending on how dirty it is at the end of the day. With 2 kids, a husband, 2 dogs, and my grandmother living with us...house cleaning DEFINATLY counts as exercise. I usually have to do the cardio first, just to build up enough energy to tackle my house but i love it. LIke you said, its an easy way to get in exercise WHILE getting your house cleaned. Works for me.

I had to laugh when I read EverHopeful's comment about being purposeful about house cleaning. It's very true! I can saunter in an hours walk or hoof it! I can putz around the house looking like I'm cleaning
I guess that's the 'intensity' thing they're all talkin' about.

Oh yeah housecleaning can make you work up a good sweat! I don't know if you have stairs in your house but just going up and down those all day is a great lower body workout. I try and do things to when I am standing still. For example when washing dishes I do calf raises, squats when in front of the tv then get down on the floor for some crunches, also like I said do those stairs a few extra times just for the heck on it and you should be doing good. For your arms though do push-ups off the counter or use the laundry soap to do some tricep kickbacks. I watch that show on Fit Tv Housecalls and they do all sorts of exercises with the stuff you have right in your home. I think the main thing is move and move often don't sit to long and you should be doing good.

I hate housecleaning. So much so that I pay someone else to do it for me. It frees up my time to do other things, like go to the gym and exercise.

- Barbara

I would love to have a housekeeper!!!!! But must do the work myself...Bummer!!

Sometimes I like housework, sometimes I don't. But sometimes it's also the only thing that gets me moving during the day because my job requires I do nothing but sit and think all day. After I do some, at least 30 minutes, I feel more energized and accomplished too, since I did something where I could see immediate results. I'm a bit of a neatnick and cleaning house for 3-4 hours straight is nothing new to me. I have organization-athons ever so often and I don't stop until I make the place perfect. (Ok, so maybe obsessive-compulsive is a little more accurate than neatnik ) After one of those, I crawl in bed at night TIRED, muscles aching and all that jazz.

When I have crazy busy times I break my workouts up into smaller sections and try to do more ordinary things. Like 15 mins dancing, or 15 mins climbing stairs, 50 jumping jacks throughout the day, 50 crunches etc...believe it or not those 15 min chunks add up to a pretty good amount of workout time.