Two mothers are making a living by cleaning blood-stained crime scenes, needle-strewn drug dens and hoarders’ homes.

Lauren Baker and Jasmine Layton, based in Kent, each run their own biohazard cleaning businesses in Kent and say they ‘love’ their jobs – but appreciate their way of earning a living isn’t for everyone.

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.

Mother-of-two Ms 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 realised some people live like that and I could make a difference,’ 30-year-old Ms Baker, from the Isle of Sheppey, said.

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

Jasmine Layton, 28 (pictured), runs her own biohazard cleaning businesses in Kent, and says she wouldn’t want to do anything else

Lauren Baker, 30 (pictured), also has her own cleaning company and insists she ‘loves’ her job but admits it’s not something everyone would want to do

Despite the many risks of their jobs – on which they’ve found dead cats in freezers and bathtubs full of human excrement – they say it pays the bills and there’s no shortage of work

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 Ms Baker sets about safely removing and disposing of biohazards including bodily fluids, needles and deadly bacteria.

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

Ms 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.’

Ms 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 investigated.

Ms Baker 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 Ms Baker sets about safely disposing of biohazards 

Ms Layton, mum-of-two from Folkestone in Kent, set up her business Crisis Cleanup in September last year

Instead, they hand over to specialist businesses like Ms Baker’s, which can charge 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 may have caused the deaths of some; including HIV, hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis.

To protect themselves, biohazard cleaners like Ms 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.

Ms 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. I’ll put myself in their family’s shoes because I’ve been on the receiving end of it,’ she said. 

‘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.’

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

Crime scene clear-ups are not too frequent, decomposition cleans are common. These jobs can present health risks from infectious diseases those who have died may have suffered from, including HIV, hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis

Ms Baker added that sympathising 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 mother-of-two from Folkestone in Kent, set up her business Crisis Cleanup in September last year.

She said she had always been interested in forensics but had found it difficult to continue her studies while looking after her two children.

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.

One of the riskiest jobs Ms Layton takes on 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.

Ms Layton said she’s had three hepatitis B jabs 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, Ms 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.

Ms Baker said sympathising with and relating to people whose houses she’s cleaning is an important aspect of her job

One of the riskiest jobs Ms Layton takes on is cleaning drug dens and sharps from people’s homes. Used needles present the danger of transmitting blood-borne infections and viruses

‘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, Ms 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. If their bathroom is completely hoarded, which it will be, they sometimes take matters into their own hands and start pooing on the floor,’ Ms Layton said. 

‘We’ve had a bath before absolutely full of faeces.’

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

‘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’.’

Ms 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 unliveable 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,’ Ms Baker continued.

‘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,’ Ms Baker said

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

‘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.’

Ms 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. After two hours on the phone, I believe I managed to change their mindset,’ Ms Baker said.

‘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, Ms 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, Ms Layton says she’s glad she has no regrets about becoming a biohazard cleaner.

‘It’s brilliant. I wouldn’t do anything different – I love it. The biohazard stuff isn’t every day. You get people asking for your help,’ she said. 

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