Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
A beautiful model has told of how she likes nothing better than to get dirty – as a cleaner who will tackle the jobs that other domestics will not.
Brazilian influencer Ellen Milgrau, 29, volunteers as a specialist cleaner to deep-clean the homes of people who are suffering from depression.
It means she has come face to face with cockroach infestations, grubs living in unwashed pans, filthy loos and homes that are otherwise unfit for human habitation.
But now she is cleaning up on social media, where her videos of her transformations have clocked up more than 30 million views on social media.
Ellen explained: “Sometimes the person can’t even get up to take a shower.
“There are situations when it’s not even fair to call a cleaner because the filth is so bad.”
Ellen began posting videos of herself cleaning up people’s homes to TikTok in early March.
She quickly went viral and has racked up more than 30 million views to date.
Her project is called Faxina Milgrau (Milgrau Cleaning) and is inspired by the cleaning-up habit she has had since she was a child
She said: “It’s like life only works when the house is clean.”
Ellen’s project came about when a friend with depression was having trouble keeping his house tidy.
After her first social media post showing her cleaning up his home racked up 2 million views and countless positive comments in just a few days, Ellen decided to continue helping people and filming the results.
She sees her project as a way of helping others and getting them to get to know her better while also doing something she says she enjoys.
She said: “With this, I can leave my comfort zone and also show a side of me that many people have no idea about.
“They think that because I’m a model, I’m untouchable or was born rich. I’m none of that. I wasn’t born rich or an heiress.”
Ellen started out by reaching out to those in need of help via social media. But after she went viral, they now contact her.
She said: “We already know how to identify those who seek us and really need our help.”
Ellen’s videos are filmed by her friend Lua Rodrigues. She says she does not receive any sponsorship for the time being.
As such, the two only take on one house a week and they have not ventured out of Sao Paulo so far.
Ellen told of the most moving story she has encountered thus far – that of a 21-year-old woman who lives alone and suffers from severe depression.
Ellen said: “It was a very precarious situation. She was completely abandoned by her family after she lost a loved one, she had no friends and was living in Sao Paulo.
“It affected me a lot.”
Ellen said the young woman had not cleaned her home for 10 months. There was rubbish everywhere and lots of cockroaches.
She said in her video: “There was a moment, during the cleaning-up, when she broke down, started to cry, felt guilty and became very ashamed http://online-pharmacy.org we were doing this for her.
“But we explained to her, we accepted her and everything went well, she was very happy.”
Ellen also suffers from depression and knows what the people she visits have to deal with.
One of the symptoms of depression is lack of energy, which can make the simplest tasks difficult to impossible. Not all sufferers experience this to the same extent.
When not cleaning people’s houses, Ellen works as a model.
