Kellie Polaschek is so familiar with the stench of death she reckons she can sniff it out anywhere.
“There really is no other smell like it,” says Kellie with a warm smile.
“Once you know what it smells like you can detect it instantly. It is so potent and distinct that you never forget it.”
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Of course, there’s good reason for Kellie’s well-tuned nose.
Eight years ago the Sydneysider was working in recruitment and bookkeeping while her husband, Andrew, was a commercial cleaner.
Then one day a relative, who worked as an emergency nurse, suggested they start mopping up crime scenes.
Initially, Kellie and Andrew launched Kamakan Forensic Cleaning as a side hustle.
Within four weeks their wait list was so long Kellie had to quit her office job to help her husband clean bloodstained walls and floors.
While Kellie, 51, says some people see her new line of work as “the most gruesome job ever”, the disinfecting technician wouldn’t change a thing.
“I could clean up body parts all day – it’s vomit that I struggle with,” Kellie admits. “I have no emotional attachment to the job, it’s just cleaning up a mess and I find it best not to think about what it actually is.”
As the family business grew, Kellie and Andrew expanded their team to include two of their kids Kyle and Alyssa, both 23, as well as friends and even one next-door neighbour.
The crew are on call any hour of the day to attend deaths, incidents in jail cells or at train stations, biological hazards and hoarder homes. No two clean-up jobs are the same and Kellie says they can go from mopping up human remains one day to rummaging through mountains of accumulated goods the next.
A crime scene typically takes four to six hours to clean, while a hoarder home can take anywhere from three to six weeks to scrub.
Although being on call 24/7, 365 days a year can be demanding, Kellie, says her family enjoy unwinding with a friendly game of softball every weekend.
“The conversation on the sidelines is always interesting because some people want to know all the gory details of our week and others don’t want to know at all,” she says with a laugh.
“So many people have said to me that they have never met a crime-scene cleaner, but we really are no different to them.”
