Cleaners’ confessions – the weirdest things found at work

We recently asked 2,011 of our Bark.com cleaners about the weirdest things they have found whilst in a client’s home and the results were certainly interesting!

In addition to the weirdest things they have found, cleaners were also asked what is the weirdest thing they have been requested to clean and what is the most awkward situation they’ve been in at work.

Ten of the weirdest items cleaners have found in a client’s house:

  1. A cardboard box full of ashes
  2. A collection of Voodoo dolls full of pins
  3. A clean chicken carcass under a pile of magazines
  4. A jewellery box full of ladies fingernails
  5. 5ft plaster cast statue of a penis
  6. A sexual dollhouse brothel
  7. A real elephant’s foot
  8. A jar of dead moths
  9. A replica farm in the living room complete with real grass and watering holes
  10. A 10-inch wooden dildo

Cleaners also revealed the weirdest things they had been asked to clean:

  1. A large stone statue of a very well-endowed man
  2. A client’s grandmother
  3. Miniature dolls posed in sexual positions (presumably for the dollhouse brothel)
  4. The soiled area of a recently deceased person (could be smelt 200 feet away)
  5. A taxidermy pigeon collection
  6. A client’s dentures
  7. A collection of moss covered rocks in the living room
  8. A fridge full of maggots
  9. Nazi memorabilia  
  10. A plastic fairground pig

A handful of respondents admitted that nothing really shocks them anymore, with others describing some of their most awkward encounters. Such as:

  1. Arriving and seeing the client running around naked inside through the glass door
  2. Being asked to dress up in a maids outfit
  3. Being forced to wear a webcam
  4. Letting themselves into what they thought was an empty home to find the occupant in the bath
  5. A customer bursting in to use the toilet whilst the cleaner is cleaning the shower
  6. Cleaning the TV and accidentally switching it on to show a pornographic film with the client in the same room
  7. Walking in on the client having sex
  8. Being asked to clean items outside of the house for neighbours to witness
  9. Arriving to find the clients drunk and giving each other piggybacks around the house
  10. Cleaning a bedroom and finding a used condom on the floor, to which the client came in and cleaned it up, apologising profusely

Kai Feller, Bark.com co-founder, said,

“It’s interesting to see the sorts of things people have in their houses, cleaners get a unique and intimate insight into the lives of others, I doubt there’s ever a dull day on the job!

“I hope member of the public will have a newfound respect for cleaners after seeing the results of our research – it’s obvious that they have to put up with the most weird and wonderful requests on a daily basis.”

You can hire a cleaner here, or to sign up as a cleaner click here.