Hardcore Cleaning

H

hypochondriac

Senior Member
Location
Australia
I'm a school janitor/cleaner currently. Its a good job really though I will find time to complain now and again. Especially if the boys go on a rampage in the toilets!
Anyway I was reading an article in the paper this morning. A woman had been found dead in her apartment in Sydney. She was in the bath and had been there an estimated 8 months. It was concluded as a homicide.
it made me wonder about those cleaners who clean up after either a crime scene or just a death. The state of the body in decay for that long. Someone has got to do that job. What an awful job! I cant begin to imagine how tough that job is. I think I would want to throw up within one minute. Lucky we have people who can do such a job.
Such thoughts remind me I am lucky to have my job. :)
 

Yes, someone always has a worse job don't they?! I used to do housecleaning for a living at one time and some people left sickening messes for me. I can't imagine cleaning up after someone dies, I think I'd get sick, too.

I always felt good after I'd clean a whole house and it was spotless.
 
There was a movie on TV last night about 2 sisters who had a business of cleaning up those horrible crime and death scenes. I didn't watch it because I saw it about a year ago. I forget the name but I know it had the word Cleaners in it.

I cleaned houses for a couple years back in the early 80s. It was pretty easy though as every house was clean when I got there. I used to wonder why they bothered to hire me. Everyone I worked for was very nice. I know I was lucky.
 

You need tough people to do tough jobs. After doing one of those hardcore cleans I described, how does one simply go home and have dinner and watch tv without it affecting them mentally. Well then we can talk about those people who work in emergency wards at hospitals. Wow.
 
A girl I went to elementary and all through high school with committed suicide in her mom`s living room when she was in her early 20s. So around 1972 or so. She shot herself in the head. Her mom had to clean it all up. Not sure if there were companies that did that type of thing back then or not. I always felt so bad for her mom having to do that.
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
A girl I went to elementary and all through high school with committed suicide in her mom`s living room when she was in her early 20s. So around 1972 or so. She shot herself in the head. Her mom had to clean it all up. Not sure if there were companies that did that type of thing back then or not. I always felt so bad for her mom having to do that.
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A high school friend and her younger sister went home and discovered their father had shot himself. How awful for children to walk in on that. :(
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
Hypochondria-My husband was a school custodian for a few years after he "retired". He used to tell me some of the horror stories about the boys` restrooms...
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Here's my chance to shine. :)
I feel heroic some days. But im really lucky because the school I work at has very friendly teachers who dont expect spic and span. Just as well perhaps. :)
 
applecruncher said:
Now I'm curious. What awful things do young boys do on the bathrooms?
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Seems to me some boys love to urinate on the floor (walls too). Do they miss on purpose? yes they do. Is it fun to be so naughty without being caught? apparently it is. it died down a while after I complained to teachers. Must be tough to word that lecture to kids. Its an all boys school by the way.
 
Not everyone is cut out for every job. Some people are not bothered by blood & guts. I couldn't do it.

In my 20's I drove a taxicab. I stopped at a gas station to use the restroom. I walked in & saw what I thought was some food in the toilet. When I looked closer, I saw that it was the top of a baby's head. A woman gave birth earlier & tried to flush the baby down the toilet but it wouldn't fit. By the time the police arrived, I was sick.
 
I would think it would be something you would eventually get used to, not saying it would get easier, but think it's something you would get used to. I too was a custodian once and used to love Septembers... (trying to put a little humor in this conversation) But girls from the ages of 13 and up, would love to put lipstick on and kiss the mirrors, which is very hard to get off... So I would show up early one day in September, and get the Principle to bring in some girls from different grades and I would show how I would clean the mirrors ( not really, but yes for this) I would walk over, put the toilet brush in a clean toilet, and swish the toilet brush over the mirror. It would always stop instantly...
 
Another adventure when I was 19 (involves a robbery & an idiot cop):
My girlfriend & I went to a park one nice summer evening for a picnic.
I needed to use the restroom. I walked in & the first thing I see is a guy slumped on the floor next to a urinal. There was a gym bag next to him. I'm thinking: "Of all the places for a drunk to pass out, this guy picks the dirtiest spot on the floor...well, this will teach him to get drunk."

After a few seconds, I thought, "Hmmm, it's so quiet in here, I can hear myself breathing, but I don't hear him breathing."
So...I look a little closer & I notice his shirt is not moving & he's not breathing. Then I see that the gym bag's zipper is open a couple of inches & there is a pile of cash in it. Then I see that the red shirt he's wearing looks like it wasn't originally red - it's just blood soaked. That was the first time I saw a dead person & it freaked me out.
I ran out of there & the first thing my girlfriend says is, "Hey...why is your face so white?"
We walked to a gas station nearby & called police. They told us to go back to the park because they wanted to talk to us.
What happened was, the guy tried to rob a liquor store a block away, the clerk shot him & he made it to the park, where he died.

The cop asks me: "Did you touch anything in the restroom?"
I said, "Just the flush handle on the urinal."
Cop: "Did you touch the gym bag?"
Me: "No. When I realized he was dead, I ran out of there."
Cop: "Did you see the cash in the bag?"
Me: "Yes."
Cop: "How much cash did you take?"
Me: "None, sir. How much cash did YOU take?"
Cop: "Why are you being a smart ass?"
Me: "Because you just accused me of stealing."
Cop: "No I didn't; I just asked you if you took any money out of the bag."
I said, "No, that's not what you asked. I got very good grades in English. How 'bout your grades?"

I thought, "What an ass. He figured because I had long hair, I must be some stupid, bum, hippie thief & he could treat me any way he wanted. I started to understand why young people don't respect cops & called them "Pigs" at the time.
 
Years ago I knew a girl that was studying Forensic Science and said her goal was to become a Forensic Pathologist. She was very attractive and I could not imagine her wanting such a career. The only thing weird about her was she studied all the time. My daughters studies required her to witness an autopsy. I ask her if it bothered her and she said it was interesting and when the skin was peeled away the muscle tissue was exact as picture from class studies. I asked if there was any odor and she said no, they keep the corpse refrigerated just like it was lunch meat. I would have fainted. She did say some of the students left after the first incision. I think she is a normal person, but must have a strong stomach.
 
<GAG!> So glad that some are able to do such clean up things. Not me... A friend has <Finally!> stopped telling me stories about cleaning up cars after awful accidents.
 
Remember the car cleanup scene in "Pulp Fiction"? Repugnant! 😛
John Travolta & Sam Jackson taking orders from Harvey Keitel.
 

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