House work as in producing nearly everything they needed and used themselves: clothes, most of tools, furniture, etc.
Also remember that the free peasants (who i assume the meme is about) were not wage workers but petty rural bourgeoisie, yet another reason this meme is bullshit since it compare two classes with essentially different relation to means of production.
Not to mention it stinks with long dead and rotten narodnik vibes.
I thought you people constantly yap about not liking echo chambers. But when you have rare opportunity to read some of the news from other side, which is banned in your oh so free speech countries, you are shitting and crying yourself (btw OP have some empty accounts following him and downvoting everything). Turns out, you do love echo chambers, but only those that don't expose you to uncomfortable truth that opinions conflicting with yours do exist.