Rat droppings, flies and maggots – what it’s like to clean a hoarder’s home
Rat droppings, flies and maggots – what it’s like to clean a hoarder’s home
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When Laura Dent gets ready for her job as a cleaner, she neatly packs a hazmat suit into her bag, that will to go on top of her work polo and trousers. The night before she will load up her van, making sure she has the right gloves and masks for the job, then checks it all again the next morning.
The cleaning that Laura and her team does isn’t your average dust and hoover. It’s work that changes and – literally – saves lives, as she and her team help people living with hoarding disorder. On the first day of a big job, they tend to only use bin bags, bio-waste sacks, small shovels and a dustpan and brush, as cleaning products often aren’t needed until a few days later.
Before each new appointment, staff talk about the sensitivities of the job and prepare themselves for what they will do if the client doesn’t let them into the home. ‘We will go over the plan for the day, chat about anything that could arise and how we will make the client comfortable,’ explains Laura, who has been helping people struggling with hoarding disorder for the past four years.
One of her clients is Rachel*, a supervisor in the emergency services who runs a busy and high-stress control room. Working nights and long hours, when Rachel used to finish her shift, she would dread arriving home. Coming through the front door, she would have to push against a mound of rubbish and boxes to get in and, once inside, she would pick over an obstacle course made of junk and unopened packages past an unusable bathroom, into the sitting room.
