10k steps is easy ?

Nope you’re wrong. 10k is made up (from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics apparently) but a reasonable baseline. 20k as a minimum is just something you’ve invented, sorry.

I think you're doing too much housework, any housework is too much in my opinion ha ha. On a normal day I work in an office 9-3pm but then I'm on my feet from 3-6 doing jobs at home and running kids to various activities, running errands, doing shopping etc. I then tend to do an hour exercise (a mix of HIIT and strength training). On a normal weekday I average 9-11,000 steps on an Apple Watch. So I'm not trying particularly hard to get to 10,000 steps but usually do. Weekends we tend to valet 2-3 cars, do some jobs at home and in the garden and again would average 8-10,000 steps. We also love to get a long walk (5-6 miles) in if the weather permits so on these days we would average 20,000 steps. So I don't think your watch is far out on steps. I suppose some watches might pick up arm movements incorrectly but i would be surprised if a Garmin was far out. I tested the Apple Watch by running on the spot for a while and counting steps in my head and it was spot on. However I did notice it adds a few on when you're ironing!

I wouldn't get any where near 10k steps pottering around doing chores in my house. I average 13-14k on my days off work and that's with a dog walk of at least an hour.
I suspect your watch is counting arm movements.

You have to put your stride length in. My steps got quite a bit shorter as I got sicker, so my count's increased for the same walk. I'm now trying to improve my stride and speed, rather than fixating on count.

I do 14-15k a day. I have a sit down job and kids grown up, so it does require effort. Do need to do less as have a sore hip, but easily gain weight if not doing it.

I find garmins are great for measuring runs, but less so for walking short distances. If I walk up a flight of stairs it seems to over count. That’s before you add in the extras from arm movements. I find I need to run a bit less than an hour to get 10,000 steps, usually about 10k so know there’s no way I’m getting to that wandering round the house and popping to the shop

I'm on 10k steps but I've done a 5km walk alongside normal household tasks (we have a 2000 sq ft house and 4 kids of primary age to run around after so pretty active). I do think your tracker is likely inaccurate. I use my phone though so it doesn't capture absolutely everything, I do find that unless I purposely walk for at least 40 mins or so (alongside the school run, clubs, Lidl shop etc) I've no hope of reaching anything like 10k steps.

I’d say this is what’s happening.
I often get an alert off my watch to say I’ve reached my steps goal when I’m doing the washing up or turning a page in the book I’m reading.

How in earth can you do 10000 doing housework? Have you got a vibrator in your pocket 😂

Sounds like whatever you are using is tracking your hand / wrist. DH can rack a load of steps by standing in the kitchen hand chopping vegetables.

That sounds a lot! Yesterday I hit 7000
working from home but did a number of chores around
the house in the evening including several trips to the bins and car, and walked a mile round trip to the shop. Similar today too.

Yes I often get my 10k notification when Im standing still brushing my teeth !
The 10k is not a magic number it's an easy number for people to remember. No step count device is 100pc accurate.
The better question is ... do you feel like you are moving enough, walking enough and getting enough exercise in your life if yes ... great and well done.
If no, forget the watch and do some other stuff as well as housework

It’s very easy to do when it’s counting housework or gardening. I work from home and went on a 30 minute walk at lunchtime and did a 10 minute cool down on the treadmill after my gym session in the evening. I didn’t make it to 10k steps that days as was mainly sitting at my desk 😩

I've had a Fitbit for years. I found 10k easy. Was easily on to 13k fpr an average day (the morning dog walk was 6k).

Then my fitbit broke.

I have a new watch tracking my steps. And making 10k is now harder. Still walking the dog. But there's been a couple of days this week I've not made 10k.

I wonder if different watches have different 'sensitivities' to what is a step?

I’ve done a 5km ParkRun, took DS to RugbyTots, cleaned the house and I’m only on 8500 steps…

I don’t find 10k easy. If I am around the house I only manage 2-3k. If I go to the shops I might do 4k. I can only manage 10k if I go on a long walk. 8k is an active day for me.

It's probably also worth remembering that not all steps are equal. 10k pottering around the house isn't the same as 10k purposefully walking.

Which wrist do you have your tracker on? Make sure it's set to dominant or non dominant hand correctly.

I get about 10k steps by parking further down the road and walking to pick DC up from school, walking laps at work when doing my playground duty, pacing up and down whilst teaching and a 30 minute session on the elliptical trainer each morning. I suspect most of your steps are coming from hand movement. Try strapping it to your ankle or waist for a day.

My watch says I have done around double the number of steps that the app on my phone says. If you halve the numbers it is probably fairly accurate.

I was a teacher before retirement so on my feet and moving about all day - round the classroom, about the site etc. I could get to 7k that way. Not 10k. And as I said it’s an arbitrary target anyway.

I’m not convinced watches are accurate. I’ve walked with my daughter - in a day trip walking the same distance and I’m always at least 15% higher step count - whether hers is measuring low or me high who knows. It’s about 2000 steps a mile, you are probably taking smaller steps in your house so say 2400. So you are walking over four miles a day inside your two bed home? Does that sound likely?

That’s a lot more housework than I get. Cooking dinners hardly generates a few hundred

If I’m in the house all day then my steps aren’t usually even up to 3k, even with housework activity included.

I agree with pp, it’s likely that your tracker is overestimating your steps.

It's interesting. I've been tracking for years as my husband.

10000 steps for me is about 90 mins and about 4.5 miles.

I can do it easily at work - about a mile each way to walk there and back and the rest around the school corridors.

At home I struggle. I'd done about 4 loads of washing, drying, ironing this morning as well as hovering... 900 steps. My husband got up 2 hrs later, pottered about a bit making breakfast almost 2000! It's odd and annoying. We both wear the same brand/edition watch! He says he just bounces around more. ..