Calories Burned Cleaning the House

A 155 lb (70 kg) person burns approximately 116 calories during 30 minutes of general house cleaning.

That number comes from applying a MET (metabolic equivalent of task) value of 3.3 — the figure assigned to general cleaning in the Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al., 2011) — to body weight and duration. It puts cleaning solidly in the moderate-intensity category, comparable to a casual walk at 3 mph.

If you want a quick personalized estimate before reading further, plug your numbers into the CalEye calories burned calculator.

Calories burned by weight and duration

The formula is straightforward: Calories = MET x weight in kg x hours. The table below applies a MET of 3.3 across three common body weights and four cleaning durations.

Duration	125 lb (57 kg)	155 lb (70 kg)	185 lb (84 kg)
15 min	47 kcal	58 kcal	69 kcal
30 min	94 kcal	116 kcal	138 kcal
45 min	140 kcal	174 kcal	208 kcal
60 min	187 kcal	232 kcal	277 kcal

MET source: Compendium of Physical Activities, Ainsworth et al. 2011. Values rounded to the nearest whole calorie.

A lighter person burns fewer calories for the same effort; a heavier person burns more, because moving more mass requires more energy. A 185 lb person doing an hour of cleaning burns about 48% more than a 125 lb person doing the same hour.

What changes the number

Body weight is the biggest lever. As the table shows, a 60 lb difference in body weight produces a roughly 50 kcal difference per 30-minute session.

Task intensity matters nearly as much. Scrubbing floors on hands and knees, carrying laundry up flights of stairs, or moving furniture are meaningfully harder than light dusting or wiping counters. The Compendium assigns heavier cleaning tasks (such as mopping or scrubbing) a MET closer to 3.5–4.0, while light tidying can fall under 2.5. An hour of mixed tasks will sit somewhere in between.

Pace and rest breaks shape the actual output. Continuous movement without pausing keeps heart rate elevated; stopping frequently to check a phone or rest drops the average intensity and total calorie burn.

Fitness level has a smaller but real effect. More aerobically fit individuals tend to work at a lower fraction of their maximum capacity for the same absolute task, which slightly lowers calories burned per minute compared to a deconditioned person doing the same motion.

MET-based estimates carry an inherent uncertainty of roughly 20–30% for individuals (see most accurate calorie burn methods for a full breakdown). Use the table as a directional estimate, not a precise accounting.

How to actually track it

Log duration, not distance. Unlike walking, cleaning has no step-based proxy for effort. The most practical approach is to note start and end times for your cleaning session and apply the table above, adjusting toward the higher end if the session was vigorous (scrubbing, hauling) or the lower end if it was light (dusting, straightening).

Use your TDEE as the anchor. Cleaning calories add to your daily total energy expenditure, which you can estimate with the CalEye TDEE calculator. A 90-minute Saturday deep clean at 155 lb adds roughly 175 calories to that baseline — a meaningful contribution that is easy to overlook if you only track formal workouts.

Pair the effort with meal data. If you follow up a cleaning session with lunch, photograph that meal and log it in CalEye in seconds — it keeps your intake and output data in the same place.