Growing up, Kellie Polaschek was squeamish opening a can of tuna. Now she cleans up gruesome crime scenes and hoarder houses for a living.
The 50-year-old mum from Sydney started out in recruitment before working as a bookkeeper, doing a stint in first aid training and then shifting into commercial cleaning.
It wasn’t until her sister-in-law, an emergency nurse, told her about the forensic cleaning industry seven years ago that she even knew it existed. She immediately saw its potential as a thriving business.
Far from your normal nine-to-five, Ms Polaschek’s job has since seen her encounter tattooed skin ‘stuck’ to a chair, four-week old remains in a shower and the all too familiar potent stench of death.
But she wouldn’t change a thing.
Growing up, Kellie Polaschek was squeamish opening a can of tuna. Now she cleans up gruesome crime scenes and hoarder houses for a living
Interestingly, Ms Polaschek applies the same methods she uses at work to her own family home.
The secret, she says, is the ‘421’ rule which sees her divide areas of the home into three categories to streamline her cleaning: seasonally (4), bi-annually (2) or weekly (1).
Ms Polaschek spilled all the gory details of her job to FEMAIL, saying it’s ‘never a dull day’ but has simply adapted a ‘just do it’ mentality.
The dynamic boss and her team from Kamakan Forensic Cleaning are on-call any hour of the day to mop up the remains of deaths, incidents in jail cells or at train stations, and biological hazards.
‘You can’t think too much about what you’re doing, you just need to get it done,’ she said.
She’s often confronted with bloodstained walls, all forms of bodily fluids, cockroaches in fridges and crammed hoarder houses crammed so tightly with rubbish the piles almost reach the ceiling.
As for what death smells like, Ms Polaschek struggled comparing it to anything other and said ‘there’s no smell like it’.
She often cleans bloodstained walls, vomit on the floor, cockroaches in fridges, and crammed hoarder houses filled with so much crammed in rubbish almost touches the ceiling. But she’s adapted a ‘just do it’ mentally to get the job done
‘Once you know it what it smells like you can detect it instantly. You never forget it because it’s so potent and distinct,’ she said.
‘Some people say it smells like a dead animal, but I think it’s 100 times worse than that.
‘We’ve been to jobs before and have smelt it from the hallway in a building. On another occasion we had a lady who had passed away in an independent living home and we could smell it from the driveway.’
Despite being somewhat used to it, she does wear a specialised uniform and face mask that helps to combat the smell and protect her.
Despite being somewhat used to it, she does wear a specialised uniform and face mask that helps to combat the smell and protect her
When mentioning her job to others she said people usually have two reactions – either they want to know everything or nothing at all
Speaking on the ‘worst’ experience she’s had, Ms Polaschek said the first thing that came to mind was a man who had died in the shower four weeks prior. Nobody had noticed him missing.
‘This is really gruesome… his body broke down because the hot water was running non-stop on him. So he sort of melted away in the shower but it overflowed and the water went through the whole house,’ she recalled.
‘It was a very strange clean, there was water everywhere and it was so slippery. There would’ve been bodily fluid in the water.’
On another occasion an older gentleman had died in his chair at home where he remained for some time. His tattooed skin was stuck to the seat.
The one job she left to her husband was a unit covered with human faeces.
‘I ran away from that one. I can clean up the worst blood and guts you’ve ever thought of, but poo or vomit I’m not a fan of,’ she said.
Another huge part of the job is cleaning up hoarder homes which can take anywhere from three to six weeks to tackle.
When bringing up her job to others she said people usually have two reactions: They want to know everything or nothing at all.
She’s also a mother of five and a runs a café in her spare time (pictured with son Michael)
As for cleaning your own home, Ms Polaschek recommends cleaning from top to bottom and back to front.
She also listed the seven most common places people forget to clean, including ceiling fans and under the bed.
‘The area above the kitchen cupboards tends to become grubby over time with a build-up of grime, oil and food particles. We’ve found animal carcasses and even $10,000 in cash in this overlooked and hard-to-reach place,’ she said.
‘The bathroom grout is often missed in the cleaning routine too. Clean it by making a bicarb and water paste, then wipe it off.’
Pet beds and toys, the couch and kids’ playroom also can be neglected.
To stay on top of the household chores Ms Polaschek opts to do small chores throughout the week rather than on one specific day.
She said her number one hack is making a mix of laundry powder and boiling hot water and using it on rough surfaces like grout, tiles or walls.
The caustic soda in laundry detergent will help break down tough marks and stains.
The 421 rule she loves involves diving the areas in the home based on frequency (quarterly, bi-annually and once a week).
For example, ceiling fans, air-conditioning vents, the tops of kitchen cupboards and rangehood filters should be cleaned once every season. Walls should be spot cleaned twice a year.
Main areas of the home like the bathroom, kitchen and bedroom should be cleaned weekly.
Pet beds, above kitchen cupboards, under the bed and bathroom grout were among the top seven most common places forgotten about when cleaning
While most amateur home cleaners are fond of pouring vinegar over baking soda to deter germs, Ms Polaschek isn’t a fan of this combination.
She claims it ‘doesn’t do anything’ to clean a surface but is instead a ‘fun’ yet ineffective chemical reaction.
She’s also not fond of harsh chemicals like bleach and uses environmentally friendly plant-based solutions.
Her favourite tool is the Shark Cordless Detect Pro Auto Empty System vacuum for a deep, thorough clean.
‘I always used to think handheld vacuum cleaners should only be used for a quick clean but I was wrong – the Shark works just as good or better than industrial cleaners,’ she said.
