What it’s like cleaning up putrid hoarder hellholes and drug dens for a living

THIS hoarder house from hell is just the tip of the iceberg. Meet the cleaner who deals with some of life’s most disturbing episodes. Warning: graphic content.

A cat farm, cleaned by Frankston's Sandra Pankhurst of Specialised Trauma Cleaning Services.

Warning: Graphic content

BLOODIED walls and floors are all in a day’s work for Frankston’s trauma cleaning expert Sandra Pankhurst.

Once the coroner, the police and the forensic investigators have packed up their kits after a murder, suicide or assault, Ms Pankhurst’s team pull on their gloves and wipe away the gore, upright the toppled furniture, and even tidy the kitchen.

“We’re not meant to do the dishes — we’re just meant to clean up the crime scene,” she says. “But I always like to make it presentable so it’s less stressful for them (the families) to come home too.”

Having been exposed to things most of us only confront in our nightmares, it’s not surprising some things never leave her.

She recalled one as particularly creepy where a husband appeared to have abandoned his family when in fact he moved into the ceiling and spied on them.

Eventually they found him in the roof with his food and supplies after he hanged himself and body fluids began dripping down the wall.

Ms Pankhurst enjoys the intrigue of the crime scene jobs and being able to help grieving families by sorting through their loved ones’ estates.

But by far the biggest arm of her business is cleaning and decontaminating squalid, drug-den, trashed, pet-infested or cluttered homes — or all of the above.

A sewage overflow had to be cleaned by Specialised Trauma Cleaning Services.

Ms Pankhurst started Specialised Trauma Cleaning Services more than 25 years ago after a stint as a funeral director. Setting herself up in a home office, Ms Pankhurst, who has also worked as a lab technician, soon had her first call-out — to a “feral” Clayton home full of rats.

The phone hasn’t stopped since.

Councils, hospitals, mental heath teams, aged-care agencies and community groups regularly call when a hoarding situation comes to light, or when a resident is not coping with independent living, due to disability, addiction or mental health problems.

This hoarder's home had to be cleaned out.

Ms Pankhurst believes hoarding is on the rise, largely because of the ease of online shopping and home delivery.

In each case, she personally visits the resident, discusses the issue, and helps sort out not only the clutter, but also their daily lives.

“The really amazing thing is not how people die — it’s how they live,” Ms Pankhurst says. “People get to a stage of, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow, I’ll do it tomorrow’ but tomorrow never comes, and then it becomes insurmountable and they don’t know where to turn.”

Sandra and her team are prepared for the worst of the worst cleaning jobs. Picture: Jason Sammon

A cat farm, cleaned by Frankston's Sandra Pankhurst of Specialised Trauma Cleaning Services.

Ms Pankhurst is proud of the respect and compassion shown by her staff members who, she says, are all from the school of hard knocks.

“We’re a business that nobody realises they need until the time comes,” she says.

After seeing so many people with limited housekeeping skills, Ms Pankhurst is about to expand the business by offering courses in “life skills”. She plans to teach people about hygiene and housekeeping, as well as how to manage a budget and plan shopping and meals.

“We’re not here to judge people, but rather to guide them along to a better way of life,” Ms Pankhurst says.

She’s always looking for new team members who are up for a challenge.

“It’s such a complex job, but it’s so invigorating, and so different to the norm,” she says. “You’ll work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life if you work for me, but it will be the most different and most challenging job you’ve ever had.”

*Details: stcservices.com.au

*Anyone with personal problems can call Lifeline on 131 114

Originally published as What it’s like cleaning up putrid hoarder hellholes and drug dens for a living