Can I clean this up myself?
Legally, in most states, nobody stops you. Practically, four things stand in the way: bloodborne pathogen exposure, the absence of protective equipment and training, waste that cannot lawfully go in your bin, and the part almost nobody warns you about — what doing this to someone you loved does to you afterwards.
We are not going to publish instructions. Not because we think you could not follow them, but because the honest answer to this question is not a procedure — it is an account of what is actually involved, so you can decide with the same information a professional would have.
The four things in the way
1. What you would be exposed to. Blood and other bodily fluids can carry bloodborne pathogens, and the relevant ones survive outside a body for meaningfully long periods — hepatitis B considerably longer than most people assume. The exposure routes are not only cuts. They include splashes to the eyes, nose and mouth, and aerosols raised by the ordinary act of scrubbing.
This is why federal workplace rules treat this as a regulated activity when an employer asks anyone to do it. It is not overcaution.
2. Equipment and training you do not have. A trained crew wears a fitted respirator, full-body barrier protection, and eye protection, and — as importantly — knows the order to remove it in so that the contamination on the outside does not end up on their hands. Disposable gloves and an open window is not a reduced version of that. It is a different activity.
3. The waste problem. This is the one that stops most people who get past the first two. Material saturated with blood or bodily fluids is regulated medical waste. It cannot lawfully go in your household bin, and in many places it cannot be transported by someone unregistered. Florida makes carrying 25 pounds or more from a trauma scene without registration a violation of state law. So even if you did the cleaning, you would be left holding bags you have no lawful way to dispose of.
4. The cost nobody prices. Cleaning up after a person you loved is not the same task as cleaning. People do it, usually because they believe they cannot afford not to, and a good proportion of them carry it for years. If you are considering this because of money, please read who pays first — insurance and state compensation cover this more often than families are told, and that is a much better reason to change your mind than anything we could say about pathogens.
What you can reasonably do yourself
Some things genuinely do not need a crew, and it is patronising to pretend otherwise:
- Removing undamaged belongings from unaffected rooms.
- Ordinary cleaning in areas with no fluid contact at all.
- Arranging access, utilities, and securing the property.
- Deciding what is kept — and taking as long as you need over it.
If you are going to do it anyway
We would rather you had this than nothing:
- Do not go in alone, and do not go in on the first day.
- Treat every fluid as infectious, including dried material.
- Do not use bleach on a large area in an unventilated space. People make themselves ill this way.
- Do not vacuum, sweep dry, or pressure-wash. All three put material into the air.
- Call your county or municipal waste authority before you bag anything and ask what they will lawfully accept.
- Anything porous and saturated is not salvageable. Trying to save carpet or a mattress is the most common way a partial job becomes a total one.
- If you are exposed — a splash to the face, a cut, a needlestick — contact a doctor the same day and say what you were exposed to. There are time-limited responses to some exposures.
The question underneath
Most people who ask this are not asking whether it is technically possible. They are asking whether they have to, because a company quoted a number they cannot pay.
If that is where you are: check insurance and your state’s compensation program before you make this decision. Several states pay cleanup costs directly, deadlines run from the date of the incident, and the call is free. Start here.