Cleaning Professionals Describe The Worst Thing They've Ever Seen On The Job

Never underestimate the work of a professional cleaner, who undergoes the dirty work most people would not want to do themselves.

Never undermine them, either, for they have a lot of power. Why?

Well, because they've seen it all and usually turn a blind eye to your unclean business at home and remain tight-lipped...until now.

Curious to hear from those who've tidied up after employers, Redditor plshelpimstruggling asked:

"As a cleaner, what’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen? No matter how gory or disgusting?"

Warning: The descriptions below are extremely graphic.

It Lived In The Basement

"One time I offered to help a friend clean out an old dilapidated house that they planned to move into after the old owners moved out a week ago or so."

"The paint was forming blister-like pockets of rainwater and peeling off the walls, the bathroom reeked of sewage and the floors were caked with clumps of moist dirt that smelled of mold, to say nothing of the spoiled food in the fridge they'd left behind, for some reason."

"But the worst part was when we checked the basement, because, as it turned out, the previous owners had abandoned a dog in there."

"His fur was so overgrown that it was basically a disgusting mat all encrusted in dirt and dust and feces and urine, to the point when we first saw him we didn't even know exactly what we were looking at, and he was also pitifully thin (the owners had bailed out a week ago so that meant he hadn't eaten for at least a week and survived off the puddles or water that leaked through the walls)."

"And when my friend went and rushed him to a nearby vet, he had dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds of ticks under the goopy mass of coat when they finally shaved it off. It took the vet several hours to pluck off all the ticks and when she was done she'd collected enough to fill a small pickle jar."

"Fortunately for the poor pooch he had a happy ending, my friend eventually decided to adopt him after we cleaned out the old house and they fully moved in, after the dog made a full recovery at the vet's. As for the original owners, they were traced down eventually and got a rather large fine for animal neglect and cruelty and were banned from owning pets again."

– Heroic-Forger

Hazard House

"Not a cleaner, but I helped some friends who were trying to clean out their neighbor's neglected house after he had a stroke. It was beyond help, truly I don't know how the state never got involved, they're still not aware of the hazard this house poses and it's only gotten worse since he went into nursing care. But his estate pays the bills, i guess."

"The poor guy had been in a wheelchair for a long time and was essentially trapped on the first floor of a three floor colonial home that had been in his family for generations. He had a single clear-ish path through decades of trash from the front door and couch to the bathroom and kitchen."

"He would feed stray cats that made their way inside and had kittens, and racoons also made their way in. The smell was beyond amonia and urea, i always wore a respirator and my lungs would still be irritated. The rest of the first floor was so inundated with trash that it took weeks to create a path to the other rooms, which were also so packed the doors barely opened, and to the stairs."

"Upstairs was worse."

"He'd spent a few months in the hospital years earlier and his sister, who he had a bad relationship with, died on the second floor. When he returned he assumed she'd taken off and never bothered to tell him. It took SEVERAL years before the decomposition caused the ceiling to collapse, prompting the first responders to check out the second floor and find her remains."

"Again, i do not know how the state didnt intervene at this point. No one came to deal with what was left upstairs after her remains were removed, the bed was left as is, just soaked in ancient putrid rot, and by the time we found it all we were so overwhelmed we just kind of marveled at it all and tried to piece together what the hell happened."

"Dozens of trash bags filled with empty cans and cat litter, cigarette cartons, and beer cans had been ripped open and strewn everywhere (probably by the racoons). There was cat litter everywhere."

"There were two dead cats locked in a bathoom that may or may not have had heads, they'd been there so long it was impossible to tell. My friend found documents suggesting she had lung cancer, and we wonder if she took her own life."

"Amazingly the attic was perfectly sealed and dry and protected a lot of antique treasures. My friends kept trying to go through everything, less to save the house and more to find family photos, history, anything the owner may want and then almost in an attempt to put together some kind of record of the family."

"They found a lot of photos, film slides, old letters and ancestry, keepsakes, but the pipes froze and burst last winter, and it became even more of a biohazard, which is a shame."

– kwolff94

Troubled Mother

"My grandmother used to be the principal of a school in the 70s and 80s. A teacher approached her about two kids, siblings, that always looked tired, had trouble with homework and grades and frankly smelled terrible all the time. The head teacher of the two and my grandmother invited the parents of the children like 4 times and they never showed up."

"The parents gave apology letters to their kids stating stuff like they had a surprise visitor, some one fell ill.... A bit later my grandmother, the head teacher and a youth welfare officer knocked on the door of the family to talk about things."

"One of the children opened the door. The smell was sickening, the garbage was beside some paths everywhere, there were mice and rats on the floor, on the shelves and in the garbage, not a single light was on and the bathtub was almost completely filled with urine and sh*t, the mother passed out on the couch."

"So the mother was single, lost her job, could not afford to pay water and electricity anymore and survived on food stamps. When she was given money by the state she would use it to buy drugs."

"Needless to say they got the kids out of the flat immediately and the youth welfare officer waited another 4 hours in that hell hole to inform the mother."

– RayseOdium

Hell On Wheels

"Worked for a tour company years back. Bosses wife took a car and a cooler, came back and parked it right at the back of the lot without telling anyone, also without removing the cooler full of largely untouched meat, cheese, milk etc. fast forward a few weeks of summer sun we pull the car out to prep only to find what can only be described as a festering slurry of maggot soup."

"The bung had either been left open or forced open by the decomposing meat gases and the foul concoction leaked into the fabric and very soul of the car. The vehicle was already well past the end of its usable life, once everyone had finished throwing up it was decided we'd write it off for parts, it was sealed and pushed back."

"She later spilled a 3 litre milk jug in another vehicle before parking it in the sun and not telling anyone, some poor bastard had to clean that one two weeks later."

– coupleandacamera

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse...it does.

The Cleaner Venue Will Surprise You

"Cleaning a toilet area during a small event in an office building. Im cleaning 2 urinals as 1 guy in a suit comes out of a booth wiping his hands on some tissue. Looks me dead in the eye, drops the tissue on the floor and walks out. Didnt even wash his hands. This complete waste of human space is the most disgusting thing I ever came across during this job."

"This is 10 years ago and to this day I think of that moment as life-changing."

"The dirtiest however was an outside dumpster filled with operating room refuse (blood soaked stuff and god knows what else) that had been sitting in the hot sun for 4 days straight. The smell when I opened that dumpster was also a life-changing event."

– coinglitch

A Cultural Difference

"My first ever job was a hotel housekeeper at Disney - a place that gets visitors from around the world. Whenever there were groups visiting from Brazil, Argentina, or other South American countries, they would use the ice bucket to throw away their used toilet paper - in their home country, their plumbing cannot handle the paper, only the solids."

"Never use the hotel ice bucket…"

– vtfb79

Who Nose What Happened?

"My cousin is a hotel cleaner and was cleaning up a room after a particularly rowdy bunch of guests had left."

"The room was a bit of a mess but nothing too out of the ordinary. After she started the usual post check out clean up she found what appeared to be a piece of jelly on the floor in the corner of the room. Upon closer inspection realised it was most of a human nose."

"Freaked out and disturbed she called her supervisor, who contacted the police. As this was happening, a guest with clear facial injuries, came back looking to recover something he had left in said room."

"The police took him to one side for questioning before rushing him to hospital. I believe the attempts to reattach were unsuccessful."

"It had turned out that he had gotten in to a substance fuelled brawl with his ‘friend’ and in the commotion had his nose bitten off, not realising until he had partially sobered up the next day."

– docenn

Whether or not you left a huge mess in the aftermath of your hotel stay anywhere, remember it's customary to tip the housekeeping staff.

Even a small token of gratitude left on the bed as you check out of a hotel will be a nice gesture for the tireless, hard-working employees who clean up after you so that you don't have to.