Kate Croukamp, a professional cleaner of 15 years, says she would “prefer to clean a dirty toilet than a dishwasher any day”.
And the nasty discovery she made after pulling out the filter of a recent client’s dishwasher might prove exactly why she dreads cleaning them.
“You can usually smell it as soon as you open the dishwasher. You get an indication as soon as you crack it if there’s something interesting waiting in there,” Mrs Croukamp said.
“But you never know until you pull (the filter) out and turn it around what’s waiting for you.”
This was the case for a recent dishwasher that looked like it had – brace yourself – oysters and mushrooms “growing” in the filter.
Turn away right now if you’ve got a sensitive stomach. news.com.au accepts no responsibility for spoiling your next meal with what you’re about to see.
Mrs Croukamp has built a cult following on social media for showing exactly how she busts grime in dirty homes across the Gold Coast with her husband, Jack, and their business Mates Rates.
“People love to watch shocking, filthy things when it comes to cleaning,” she told news.com.au.
And she knew this filter would be an instant hit with her more than 81,000 TikTok followers, given it was one of the worst she’d come across in her professional cleaning career.
“This filter is up there. Visually, it was a lot, add in the smell as well and, it was pretty bad,” she said.
Cleaning called for a “double gloving” and a combination of scrubbing brushes, scourers, and degreaser to “get into the nooks and crannies” of the machine.
And by the time she was finished, the filter looked brand new. It looked so clean you could be forgiven for thinking Mrs Croukamp has bought a replacement and saved herself the effort.
The state of the filter stunned her followers, who could not believe “someone let it get like this”.
But Mrs Croukamp told news.com.au most people would not know there was a filter to clean.
“It’s easy to judge online how someone lives, but a lot of people were never taught how to clean,” she said.
“If you were taught to clean that’s a huge privilege, and many people never were.
“Not everyone is lazy, it could be many factors: it could be mental health, disability, being elderly, or just not knowing how to do it.”
She said that was part of why she started posting content to social media under the brand ‘Clean Like A Pro’, because people are as interested in seeing how other people live and learning how to clean their homes better.
Mates Rates specialises in end-of-lease bond cleaning – including carpets and pest control – which means the Croukamps and their team have seen homes from all kinds of suburbs in all kinds of states.
“We’ve walked into multimillion-dollar houses where the $5000 bath was being used as kitty litter,” Mrs Croukamp recalled.
“We’ve seen it all, at both ends of the scales. We’ve walked into places that are pristine, or you could walk into a place that’s totally neglected. It’s the difference between a job taking half a day or days.”
Because of that, Mates Rates determines the price of a bond clean on the condition of the property, whether it needs a lighter once-over or a deep clean – pest and carpets included.
A four bedroom single-storey “standard house” bond clean, Mrs Croukamp said, could cost anywhere from $500 up to around $2000 “depending on what you walk into”.
But some renters have shared their horror after realising how much work was involved in a bond clean, or claim they’ve been “scammed” by cleaners.
Mrs Croukamp said there was “huge variance” in the standards of cleaners, especially after the industry’s boom during the pandemic, but said finding a good one for a bond clean was better than being bogged down by the task.
“For one person to do it (a bond clean) it can take up to a week,” she said.
“Moving house is one of the top three most stressful life events – as well as divorce and death in the family – and people struggle for all reasons.”
But still, many people attempt the mammoth task, either to avoid an added expense during an already expensive time; or to avoid the “embarrassment” of having to call professional help.
“Thing is, I enjoy doing cleaning transformations and helping people who are moving home and taking away as much stress as possible,” Mrs Croukamp said.
“So many people are embarrassed to call someone in, but that’s our jobs are, that’s what we’re there to do.”
And as much as she dreads cleaning filters, she admits: “I get quite excited when I see a dishwasher like that (in the video).”
“I’d rather do that then houses that are spotless everyday.”