Calories burned cleaning calculator
See what housework burns for your body, job by job.
Updated
Your result
For an hour of cleaning (cleaning the house, general) at 65 kg:
150extra kcal
On top of the 55 kcal you’d burn anyway in that time. In total it uses about 210 kcal.
It’s already part of your everyday level on the TDEE calculator, so don’t add it as exercise.
Calories burned cleaning: the key numbers
- An hour of cleaning adds about 100 to 190 extra kcal for a 65 kg person, depending on the job.
- An hour of cleaning (cleaning the house, general) adds about 150 extra kcal at 65 kg and 240 at 100 kg.
- The figures come from 6 rows of the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, from 2.5 to 3.8 METs: 5 from published studies and one the Compendium’s own estimate.
- It’s part of the everyday level on the TDEE calculator, so it isn’t added as exercise.
Already in your TDEE
This is the kind of movement the everyday level on the TDEE calculator covers. If you do a lot of it, choose a higher everyday level rather than adding it as exercise.
For your body and time
| Activity | Extra kcal | Compendium value |
|---|---|---|
| Tidying and changing beds | 100 | 2.5 METs, Compendium code 05040 |
| Vacuuming | 130 | 3 METs, Compendium code 05043 |
| Cleaning the house, general | 150 | 3.3 METs, Compendium code 05030 |
| Mopping | 170 | 3.5 METs, Compendium code 05021 |
| Heavy cleaning, such as washing the car | 170 | 3.5 METs, Compendium code 05020, an estimate |
| Sweeping, fast | 190 | 3.8 METs, Compendium code 05012 |
Each figure uses the activity’s cost from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, which gives it in METs of oxygen use per kg of body weight, so the extra scales with your weight. The Compendium marks “Heavy cleaning, such as washing the car” as an estimate; its other values here come from published studies. Only the part above resting counts as extra. What you’d burn anyway comes from your own resting rate (Mifflin-St Jeor), not the standard 1 MET: in 769 adults, measured resting burn averaged 0.84 kcal per kg an hour against the standard 1 (Byrne, 2005).
Compare every activity on the calories burned calculator.
More activities: walking, running, lifting weights, swimming, cycling, elliptical, treadmill, hiking, sleeping, standing, yoga, Pilates, climbing stairs, dancing, rowing, gardening, golf.
Short answers
How many calories does cleaning burn?
It depends on the job, and on your weight. For a 65 kg woman, an hour adds about 100 kcal (tidying and changing beds) up to about 190 (sweeping, fast) on top of what she’d burn anyway. For a 100 kg man it’s about 150 to 290.
How many calories does vacuuming burn?
Vacuuming for 30 minutes adds about 65 kcal for a 65 kg woman and about 100 for a 100 kg man.
Should I add cleaning to my TDEE?
Not as exercise. Cleaning is the kind of movement the everyday level on the TDEE calculator covers. If you do a lot of it, choose a higher everyday level instead.
Sources
Checked against each source on 22 and 23 October 2026
- Herrmann SD, et al. (2024). 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities: a third update of the energy costs of human activities. J Sport Health Sci 13(1):6–12. PMID 38242596
- Byrne NM, et al. (2005). Metabolic equivalent: one size does not fit all. J Appl Physiol 99(3):1112–9. PMID 15831804
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. (1990). A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr 51(2):241–7. PMID 2305711