Millions Watch Her Clean the Homes of Those in Crisis

Dead birds, maggots, and "garbage carpets" are just another workday for Bea Elton, a 28-year-old cleaner whose specialty is extremely dirty homes. The Guardian's Emily Retter follows Elton—known online as CleanWithBea—who tackles properties buried under years of rubbish, cat waste, and decay. With more than six million followers across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, Elton films each transformation, but Retter shows that what appears to be a few days of hardcore cleaning is really more involved. Elton gets about 160 job requests a month, but in just under three years, she's completed around 45 cleans.

She focuses on helping people who are overwhelmed by depression, trauma, disability, or poverty and too ashamed to seek help, and she spends months developing their trust (she recounts one sexual assault victim whose toilet broke; wary of inviting in a male plumber, she resorted to using her tub as a toilet for years). As Retter writes, "The videos do not reveal that Elton's work involves this extraordinary investment in strangers long before the cleans begin, and often afterwards, too, which can mean liaising with their local authorities, support workers, and therapists." Elton also pays to put hotel owners up during the cleaning, hires for specialist biohazard teams if needed, and sometimes even clears debts or buys furniture.

The work is grueling and emotionally heavy, but Elton insists that "no matter how bad a situation gets, it is always fixable." The full story, which has before-and-after shots, explains how Elton got her start after filming herself cleaning her own mold-covered London rental.