Ex-embalmer now decorates single moms’ homes for free

By Pol Allingham via SWNS

This self-taught decorator and hoarding specialist renovates single moms’ homes for free.

Multi-talented Tee Williams runs a cleaning company helping people declutter their lives on the UK TV show 'Hoarders.'

But the single mom has now branched out to set up her design company InTEErior Designs, despite having no carpentry qualifications and teaching herself via YouTube and Instagram videos.

Once she’s watched online demonstrations, Tee will apply her new knowledge to create anything from a resin bar for a nightclub to a media wall or a secret door leading to a panic room.

She never refers back to the video content - as a visual learner Tee can watch the bare bones of what needs to be done and crack on with her own version.

The 48-year-old, who previously worked as an embalmer, puts some of her success down to her OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), driving her to make things perfect.

The mom of two and grandmother of two has converted an entire garage from floor to ceiling, built a water feature in her own hallway, created a gazebo for a wedding proposal, made penny floors, and transformed bathrooms, living rooms, bedrooms and gardens.

Customers keep coming back - 14 people are currently waiting for solo worker Tee to be free, the majority of them single moms.

She offers her skills to vulnerable people without making any profit.

The lockdown project-turned-business began as an entirely free enterprise. As it expanded, with regular trips from Birmingham to London, UK, Tee had to ask people to cover her fuel and tools.

One of her favorite jobs was five days spent building a media wall complete with a fireplace, shelves, and space for a television. She had never built one before.

Another was a garage conversion where she turned the entire space into a shrine for a client’s dead mother and father. The garage was gutted and redecorated from scratch, except for the lighting because she’s not a qualified electrician.

Currently, Tee is creating a panic room for a woman in London, where a secret doorway will lead to a room stocked with essential items. She said: "I laughed about it with her, and I just do what I'm asked."

As a teenager, Tee was fed up with the look of the council houses her friends were living in, with the same furniture in every home so she set out to liven them up.

Tee said: “I’ve always just liked things to be different and think outside the box. When I left my mom’s house as a teenager and went to my friends’ houses, everyone was renting.

“It was always the same council cupboards, it was always the same look

“I hated the look of everyone’s houses, and started wondering how can I change these houses without renting privately, or damaging the council’s cupboards? So I started to just help people out.

“I’d get vinyl wrap and put it over their kitchen cupboards, or change their handles, to just change the look of things. And that’s all I’ve ever done.

“Fast forward 20 years and we’re in lockdown, everybody’s looking at the same four walls, and I thought, I’m just going to start doing-up stuff and putting it on social media. Then my phone would not stop ringing.

“And I said I’m going to do it for free, I’m going to come and help people that are vulnerable, I’m going to help people that are lonely and who can’t do for themselves. I’m not just going to help a mate with their husband there.

“I started to help single moms. And it was great because people were stuck at home but could be looking at a beautiful gazebo in their garden with a cinema.

“Now I’m building media walls, partition walls, I’m laying down flooring, I can do decking. I can do anything, and I’ve never been qualified, I’m self-taught.

“My favorite job has to be my media wall, because I’ve just saved someone three grand. Just by watching YouTube and Instagram videos, I thought 'I can do that.'

"If I'm working for a nightclub I'll charge them properly, but if it's a single mom I'll just ask them for 50 quid ($61 USD) for a 250 or 300 quid job. I just ask them to cover my petrol and any bits like paintbrushes, and a meal."

"If it's a bigger job then they'll buy the equipment themselves.

"I've got OCD, and when I was an embalmer I felt like a surgeon because I had my own prep room and everything was perfect. It's the same in the designs, I make sure every job is perfect and I do everything freehand unless I'm doing tape painting.

"I make sure everything is on point, as in perfect, and I can't help it. I think that's why it turns out right."

It’s not the first time Tee has taught herself a craft. While working at a predominantly Asian funeral home, families speaking Urdu and Punjabi would ask to chat.

To improve her service she’s spent 10 years teaching herself Urdu. In June she’s planning to visit Islamabad, Pakistan.

Though no longer an embalmer, speaking Urdu has supported her design work.

After finishing work as an embalmer, she set up the cleaning company Caz and Tee, specializing in helping hoarders. Now a full team operates with the pair.

Being biohazard trained, Tee leads a trauma team, and if someone's died she can enter the scene and help remove the body before decluttering takes place.

Channel 5 picked them up for the TV show Hoarders. The pair will appear in one episode this year, but Tee insists they didn't set up the business to appear on television.

They prefer to work out of the limelight.

Clean-up requests come in from the council, occupational health, solicitors, the police, and families.

She said: "Hoarding is a mental health issue. We're petitioning on Change.org for hoarders to get a subsidized grant from the government.

"Hoarders know what they're doing but they can't help it and they can't afford the clean up after, we try and help them because me and Caz are really serious about mental health."