Laundry + Football = $22,000 in Prizes

June 13, 2006 — -- His friends might make fun of him, but now Joe Molnar has the last laugh with his $22,000 worth of prizes for winning the Mr. Good Housekeeping contest.

"I take a little abuse," said Molnar of Buffalo, NY. "But when I get that new plasma TV and I'm sitting back and relaxing..."

He smiled and trailed off -- perhaps basking in sweet victory.

Last February, Good Housekeeping announced its search for Mr. Good Housekeeping -- a grime-fighting husband who cheerfully does the housework. Roughly 7,000 readers argued that their husbands should win the prize package, which included furniture from Lane and Wrangler Home, a washer, dryer, and dishwasher from General Electric, and a Philips plasma TV.

Molnar is a diamond in the rough, says his wife Sarah Molnar, and statistics show that most men are not willing to contribute to household chores. According to a University of Chicago study, husbands shoulder 39 percent of the household chore load. Likewise, a University of Michigan study found that women do 18 hours of housework a week, but men average only seven.

Molnar, 33, is the exception. He works in a hospital laboratory but at home, likes to fold laundry while watching football. He washes the kitchen floor twice a week and loves to vacuum. He even used last year's tax refund to buy a carpet steamer.

Good Housekeeping editor-in-chief Ellen Levine said they were looking for a husband who happily does chores like laundry and dusting -- not just the manly tasks like yard work. They wanted a father who balances all his responsibilities. They found it in Molnar.

In her letter to Good Housekeeping, Sarah Molnar said her husband is known in the family as "the housewife." She wrote that he folds towels like they do in hotels, t-shirts like they do at The Gap, and makes pancakes like you'd find in a restaurant.

He is "the most loving and caring husband and father to his son and baby-to-be," she wrote.