Extreme cleaners tackle dirty drug dens, crime scenes and more

By Brad Harper

Meet the two moms who make a living by cleaning blood-covered crime scenes, needle-strewn drug dens and hoarders' homes.

Lauren Baker and Jasmine Layton both run their own biohazard cleaning businesses in Kent - and say they wouldn't want to do anything else.

Both insist they "love" their jobs but admit it's not something everyone would want to do.

However, despite the many risks and unglamorous nature of their jobs - on which they've found dead cats stuffed into freezers and bathtubs full of human excrement - they say it pays the bills and there's no shortage of work.

Mom-of-two Baker revealed she once removed shocking amounts of items weighing nearly as much as four double-decker buses from just one hoarder's home.

She explained that she found her niche after working as a domestic and commercial cleaner when she was called to a "really grotty" house.

“I realized some people live like that and I could make a difference,” 30-year-old Baker, from Minster on Kent's Isle of Sheppey, said.

Three years ago, Baker decided to embark on a biohazard cleaning course in Birmingham.

After completing her course, she set up her own LIT Biohazard and Trauma Cleaning business, cleaning up trauma and unattended death scenes, hoarder homes and drug dens across Kent and Essex.

Discovering animals trapped in masses of nappies, bottles of urine, tampons and takeaway boxes is all in a day's work as Baker sets about safely removing and disposing of biohazards including bodily fluids, needles and deadly bacteria.

“I absolutely love filth and grime,” Baker says. “Throw me in a sh***y toilet and I will have a field day.”

Baker recalled one occasion when she was called out to a hoarder's home and found a dead cat stuffed into the homeowner's freezer.

She explained that the pet was something the owner "could not physically let go of" because they had "too much of an emotional attachment" to the animal.

A sign on the door of LIT Biohazard and Trauma Cleaning's offices reads: “You do the crime, we’ll clean the grime.”

Baker's 2008 Vauxhall Zafira is decked out with her company's logo and slogans reading: “Follow me on my socials, not in real life though - that’s weird”, and “When a bodily fluid becomes a floor fluid, scan this!”, with a giant QR code above.

She says most people simply believe emergency service personnel clean up crime scenes after forensics teams have been.

Instead, they hand over to specialist businesses like Baker's, who charges into the thousands to attend sites and leave them spotless.

“I cleaned a hotel room once where a couple had stayed,” she recalled. “The bathroom was quite bad… When I walked in, it looked like a bloodbath.

“It will always stick with me because you sit there and think, 'What actually happened?'"

Though crime scene clear-ups are not too frequent, as most are handled in-house by police, decomposition cleans are far more common.

These jobs also present health risks from infectious diseases that those who have died may have suffered from, including HIV, hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis.

To protect themselves, biohazard cleaners like Baker are kitted out head-to-toe in full personal protective equipment (PPE), comprised of a hazmat suit, boots, respiratory masks and double gloves.

They are also armed with industrial-strength chemicals and disinfectants, as well as traditional cleaning tools like mops and buckets.

Baker admits that being called to the aftermath of suicides is particularly difficult for her, as a close member of her family took their own life.

“My emotions come flooding back,” she said. “I'll put myself in their family's shoes because I've been on the receiving end of it.

“I know how it feels to have the police knock at your door. But I have to take my emotions out of it because this family needs me right now and they need me to be on top form.

“So I can't be breaking down. This is not my story. This is not my place. I'm here to help this family."

Baker added that sympathizing with and relating to people whose houses she's cleaning is an important aspect of her job.

"I absolutely love my job," she said. "I wouldn't want to do anything else. I have definitely found what I should be doing."

Jasmine Layton, another mom-of-two from Folkestone in Kent, set up her business Crisis Cleanup in September last year.

She said that though she had always been interested in forensics, she had found it difficult whilst looking after her two children to continue her studies at university.

The 28-year-old said being a biohazard cleaner felt 'similar' to being a forensic investigator, and is not without its potentially dangerous occupational hazards.

Layton explained that one of the riskiest jobs she undertakes is cleaning drug dens and sharps from people's homes.

Used needles, which present the danger of transmitting blood-borne infections and viruses, are often hidden.

Layton said she's had three hepatitis B jabs - having to wait half a year before she was fully vaccinated - which gives her a 'tiny peace of mind' when cleaning hazardous locations.

But she says her PPE needs to be "on absolute point"' to be fully protected.

The cleaner’s gloves are extra-thick to protect against needle pricks and she uses a magnetic litter-picker to grab the drug paraphernalia.

Remembering one clean, Layton said: “The family didn’t really have much history about the person who had passed away, but as I was moving his sofa around I could hear a jangle.

“I cut the back of the sofa and there were needles jammed down there.

“I’ve heard people have put them in fridges and booby traps in walls."

Other obscure locations where needles are found include some jammed in the seals of showers, stashed in tins of urine and stuffed under fences at the bottom of gardens.

In some houses, Layton has stumbled across stashes of hundreds of Barbie dolls and teddy bears.

However, collections of toys are far from the grisliest discoveries she's found.

“Hoarders tend to hoard their poo and wee,” Layton revealed. "If their bathroom is completely hoarded, which it will be, they sometimes take matters into their own hands and start pooing on the floor.

“We’ve had a bath before absolutely full of feces.”

Baker added that clean-ups of hoarders' homes can often become incredibly tense, with some shouting in her face.

She said: “I've said to them, 'We need to dwindle these 78 glasses down to just 10’. There are only three of you that live in this house, so you don't need 78 glasses.’”

Baker estimates the biggest hoard she has removed from a single home was a staggering 39 tonnes: around the weight of nearly four double-decker buses.

She says hoarders are sometimes incorrectly branded as 'lazy' for creating unlivable environments for themselves, and even their children.

But for many, she says there is often a deeply personal reason behind their hoarding.

“If a hoarder has been a victim of domestic violence, she could be made to feel like having a period is absolutely disgusting,” Baker continued.

“So they end up leaving that relationship and because it's been drummed into their heads that periods are vile and they shouldn't have any sanitary products, they start hoarding them - because they have control.

“People always put us down and say: ‘You’re just a cleaner’. But we’re not. We take a lot of risks."

Baker recalled a phone call she received a few weeks ago from a person who was "crumbling", saying they had nothing to carry on living for.

They had found her number online and saw she offered mental health crisis cleaning, so they 'took their chances' and reached out in the hope of getting support.

“They never wanted a cleaning service; they wanted support and help,” Baker said. “After two hours on the phone, I believe I managed to change their mindset.

“We found hope and sorted out a plan moving forward."

Both biohazard cleaners said their jobs don't only present physical challenges, but emotional ones as well.

To help people improve their lives is a sentiment both cleaners share.

Referring to the phone call she received a few weeks ago, Baker said: “I just know this person was sent to me for a reason. But I'm just a cleaner, right?"

Now eight months into her new career, Layton says she's glad she has no regrets about becoming a biohazard cleaner.

"It's brilliant," she said. "I wouldn't do anything different - I love it. The biohazard stuff isn't every day. You get people asking for your help, hoarders…

"It ranges from normal to the extreme, which I like. Some jobs can be dangerous, but there will always be this kind of work."