Merry Maids Inspires Americans to Get Their Blood Pumping and Their Hearts Healthy With a Push of a Vacuum
Company Added
Company Removed
Apply to Request List

Merry Maids Inspires Americans to Get Their Blood Pumping and Their Hearts Healthy With a Push of a Vacuum

Merry Maids Partners With the American Heart Association to Raise Awareness and Funds for the Fight Against Heart Disease

MEMPHIS, TN - (Marketwired - January 21, 2015) - This February, Merry Maids, the nation's leading home cleaning company and part of the ServiceMaster (NYSE: SERV) family of brands, is encouraging consumers to "get moving, start cleaning and be heart healthy" by showing some love to their homes and to themselves through the physical activity of cleaning. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), one of the best ways to reduce the risk of heart disease is through regular physical activity, which provides multiple benefits for women, including: stress and tension relief, increased immunity, prevention and management of high blood pressure, as well as a 30-40 percent reduction of coronary heart disease. Merry Maids is partnering with the AHA's Go Red For Women campaign for its third year to show people how to get active and get their hearts pumping from the comfort of their own homes through cleaning and maintaining a tidy living space.

"Consumers may not realize that scrubbing the bathroom floors and vacuuming are great ways to stay active, while helping to maintain a healthy home and heart," says Debra Johnson, home cleaning expert for Merry Maids. "Merry Maids is excited to partner with the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women campaign to raise awareness for a cause that affects millions of women in the U.S. every year."

By tackling basic cleaning activities, including vacuuming, washing the floor and scrubbing the shower, consumers can break a sweat and even burn calories, according to Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, cardiologist and spokesperson, American Heart Association's Go Red For Women. Merry Maids also put this to the test with its own "Get Moving, Start Cleaning, Be Heart Healthy" study in which it armed several Merry Maids team members with wearable fitness trackers to estimate how many calories they burned during routine cleaning chores. Below Johnson highlights some of these daily cleaning activities that can help get the heart pumping:

Va Va Voom Vacuum Routine:

If the thought of choosing between going to the gym and vacuuming the living room stresses you out, you'll find comfort in knowing you can burn up to 170 calories in just one hour of vacuuming1. Merry Maids team members who participated in the "Get Moving, Start Cleaning, Be Heart Healthy" study and wore fitness trackers during the workday burned an estimated 191 calories in an hour of vacuuming. While an hour may seem like a long amount of time, Johnson recommends vacuuming slowly in order for the vacuum cleaner to do its best work.

Bathroom Wipe Down Workout:

Scrubbing the tub and washing the bathroom floor are easy tasks to put on the backburner. Before procrastination sets in, consider that with a little bit of elbow grease and a microfiber cloth, cleaning the bathroom can be a workout of its own. The Merry Maids "Get Moving, Start Cleaning, Be Heart Healthy" study estimated that Merry Maids team members burned more than 200 calories in one hour of bathroom cleaning. And if cleaning the bathroom makes you break a sweat, what better way to reward yourself than by calling first dibs on the freshly cleaned shower?

Mopping and Bopping:

It might seem silly to turn your mop into a dance partner or a microphone, but having a little fun while you wash the floors is just what you need to take your floor-washing chores from mundane to exciting. Getting your groove on with the mop for just 60 minutes will increase the number of steps you take, increase your heart rate and result in approximately 170 calories burned1. For best results, use a microfiber mop and a bucket of warm water with a little dish soap.

A Little Tidying Goes a Long Way:

Everyday cleaning activities such as dusting, sweeping and folding can equate to some serious heart-healthy activity. In that crucial hour of straightening up before bed or getting organized before weekend guests arrive, you can get your blood pumping and burn approximately 102 calories1.

To celebrate the third year of its partnership with the AHA, Merry Maids is encouraging consumers to spread the love, or the "likes," in support of the cause. For every new "Like" of the Merry Maids Facebook page during the month of February, Merry Maids will donate $1 to the AHA's Go Red For Women campaign, and will match all donations up to $75,000.

"We are grateful to Merry Maids for its continued support to raise funds and awareness for cardiovascular disease as we work to build healthier lives," says Bernie Dennis, Chairman, American Heart Association National Board of Directors. "We truly appreciate Merry Maids' commitment to the cause, and we're excited to work together to promote simple and fun ways for families to stay active while cleaning at home."

A local Merry Maids team is ready for the workout and can create customized cleaning plans for every homes' needs to ensure a consistent, reliable and thorough cleaning process every time. To find the Merry Maids location nearest you, visit merrymaids.com. For more information and to stay up-to-date on the latest Merry Maids news, visit merrymaids.com, "Like" the brand's Facebook page or follow Merry Maids on Twitter.

1 Source: CalorieLab.com; data computed for weight of average 150-pound person

About Merry Maids

Merry Maids is the largest home cleaning franchise network in the United States. Merry Maids provides services in 49 states and the District of Columbia through approximately 70 company-owned locations and 390 franchised outlets. Through its company-owned and franchise locations, Merry Maids employs more than 8,000 home cleaning professionals that service homes on four continents, including more than 200,000 homes in North America every month. Merry Maids is a business unit of The ServiceMaster Company, LLC, one of the world's largest residential and commercial service networks. The company's brands include Terminix, American Home Shield, ServiceMaster Restore, ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, Furniture Medic and AmeriSpec. Go to www.merrymaids.com for more information about Merry Maids or follow us at twitter.com/MerryMaids and facebook.com/MerryMaids.

About Go Red For Women

Go Red For Women is the American Heart Association's national movement to end heart disease and stroke in women because it's not just a man's disease. In fact, more women than men die every year from heart disease and stroke. The good news is that 80 percent of cardiac events can be prevented with education and lifestyle changes. Go Red For Women advocates for more research and swifter action for women's heart health. The American Heart Association's Go Red For Women movement is nationally sponsored by Macy's, with additional support from our cause supporters. For more information, please visit GoRedForWomen.org or call 1-888-MY-HEART (1-888-694-3278).

About the Merry Maids "Get Moving, Start Cleaning, Be Heart Healthy" Study

The 2014 Merry Maids "Get Moving, Start Cleaning, Be Heart Healthy" study presents the findings from a brief test conducted by Merry Maids in December 2014 among five Merry Maids teams members based in the Memphis, Tenn. area. The Merry Maids team members were armed with wearable fitness trackers during specified cleaning activities to determine estimates of how many calories the team members burned through vacuuming, washing the floors, cleaning the bathroom and performing light tidying.

SOURCE Merry Maids

Media Contacts:

Andrea Salzman
617.939.8433

Alison Bishop
901.827.6956

###

Comments:

comments powered by Disqus
Share This Page

Subscribe to our Newsletters