I moved house yesterday. I won't lie, I did it the way one can do most things with greatest ease and minimal stress - I paid someone. Oh the shame! Not really, moving is a such a p.a.i.n. When the Boy and I moved in together a few years ago (3yrs, 5 months and 12 days), we verged on breaking up whilst trying to get the Ikea sofa up the stairs.
Was the £100 (not even discounting for wear and tear) sofa worth that argument that almost ended years of loving, sweet relationship? Hell, no. But at that point in time, I remember thinking clearly that if we couldn't work together to maneuver that sofa up those stairs, what hope did we have in the future? How would we deal with other major decisions? Marriage? Children? And why didn't he understand that the sofa was really heavy and I was trying to move it round the corner without scratching the walls? You've heard of Bridezilla? Try Movedusa. Moveatron? Move-igfoot? Ah, nothing has quite the same ring.
But, it turns out while paying people to pack and move for you does reduce your work and stress, you'll still get stressed anyway. Are they packing it right (yes, they are professionals)? Will they put stuff in the right places (not always)? Will everything fit up the new stairs (no, was the sad conclusion)? Why did we paint the hallway walls before moving furniture up the stairs (god knows)?
And when all the boxes (all 103 of them, not including our own boxes, suitcases, trunks etc.) are stacked up throughout the house and the packers leave with a smirk on their faces, that's when the realization sinks in that you now have to unpack. And you can't pay someone to do that for you (well, you probably can but you would have to tell them where every little bottle, decoration, piece-of-paper-you-didn't-actually-want-to-keep-but-they-had-packed up-anyway) goes. So I drew the line there and unpacked myself (the Boy was at work). And you're torn between unpacking like crazy so you get it all done as quickly as possible and falling in a heap over a box and sobbing that there are too many boxes and it'll never be finished. Then, during an exasperated call with L'il Sis, she suggested I stick on the heart rate monitor and write a post about unpacking. It'd be interesting to see how many calories one burns unpacking, she said, and though it's not technically a class, it's something everyone will do at some point. She may be L'il but she sure is wise, so, here we are!
The stats are below - to keep in line with a class, I recorded just an hour of unpacking (it took w.a.y. longer I assure you) and in hindsight, it wasn't the most intensive hour of unpacking. When I started, I was running up and down the stairs moving files, ornaments, clothes and whatnot. It was sweaty work - sweaty enough to make me sport a stylish 80s sweatband and tuck my t-shirt up (ok, I may have danced a little between boxes).
All in all, unpacking is decent exercise - taking into account that you're doing it for a good few hours for a good few days, having intense bursts of moving boxes to find something that is obviously going to be in the last box you open and inevitably be moving around constantly, I would say its analogous to an all-round low impact cardio class with little bursts of strengthening exercises.
Said unpacking was actually done on Wednesday, 17 July 2013. Full blog post and pictures can be found here.
The Need To Know:
There is nothing you need to know
The Want to Know:
- Who's it For: For those who are moving (good luck and god bless!)
- Sweat Scale: 6/10. On average
- Strength / Cardio / Flexi / Tone: Light cardio and strength
- Complexity: 3/10. Most complex thing is figuring out where you want everything to go.
- Fun Factor: 1/10. Stick on some tunes and make it less painful.
- Changing Facilities: Depends where you're moving to!
- Instructor Inspiration: 10/10. Obviously.
The Stats:
- Total Time: 62mins
- Calories Burnt: 123. At 1.98 calories-burnt-per-minute, it's 8th last on the leaderboard. But calories-burnt per session would be impressive!
- Average Heart Rate: 69
- Max Heart Rate: 105