Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Rebecca Cooley & Sara Odeen-Isbister

Cleaners find 1,500 pizza boxes among mountains of waste in Brit hoarder's horror home

Shocking footage shows a hoarder's home jam-packed full of rubbish, including 1,500 pizza boxes and used toilet paper.

The one bedroom flat was cleared out by professional cleaner Joe Cole, who described it as 'one of his worst jobs yet'.

Joe's clearance company, JGD Pro Solutions was called in September last year after neighbours complained of a stench coming from the property near Southampton in Hampshire.

Joe and his teamed arrived to find every inch of the property swamped in rubbish.

The waste, including an estimated 1,500 takeaway boxes, was piled three-quarters of the way up the walls in some rooms and even inside the shower, making it unusable.

The owner - who Joe calls 'pizza addict man' - had also discarded used toilet roll and chicken bones in the flat instead of binning them.

The mountain of rubbish, including pizza boxes, found in the hoarder's flat (Kennedy News and Media)
Joe estimates there were around 1,500 pizza boxes in total (Kennedy News and Media)

Joe has now shared shocking footage of the 'landfill-like' property, which took the team of five workers three days to empty.

Joe said: "We couldn't even push the front door open fully, we had to squeeze in, until we got rid of some items.

"It was just a dumping ground. Everything you'd normally put in your household bin was in that property - pizza boxes, chicken bones, toilet paper...

"The whole flat was a dustbin basically - worse than a dustbin, it was like a landfill.

"Even the bedroom was absolutely full up and he was climbing onto the bed and there was this tiny little space where he was putting his body to go to sleep at night.

It's believed the man let the waste build up during lock down (Kennedy News and Media)
Joe Cole, pictured, said it was 'one of his worst jobs yet' (Kennedy News and Media)

"He obviously had a liking for pizzas because that was the majority - he must have been addicted to pizza. I can imagine he must have spent a lot of money on takeaways.

"It was piled three-quarters of the way up the walls. He'd done it in his way of doing it neatly, building a pizza wall around him.

"He stunk, he mustn't have had a shower for months because the shower was full up and hadn't been used.

"The sink in the kitchen was completely full up as well so that hadn't been used either."

The self-professed 'Clutter King' set up his business six years ago and initially started on domestic households before establishing contracts with some local councils and housing associations.

He now takes on most of his jobs, including this one, through these means.

Joe says the 'pizza addict' man, who lived alone in the one-bedroom flat, had built the mess up over the last couple of years after being 'stuck' at home throughout lockdown.

It took Joe's team three days to clear the flat (Kennedy News and Media)
Joe described the work as rewarding (Kennedy News and Media)

The years of 'compacted' food waste created such a stench that his next door neighbours reported the issue and kickstarted the clearance job.

Joe said: "It was lockdown where he just got carried away stuck in the property for the three-year period plus.

"He was aware of what he was doing but I think it just gets to such a stage where they can't do anything about it because they're too embarrassed. They won't speak to family members or let anyone in the property.

"As soon as you start digging down and get to the bottom half of it where it's been compacted and god knows how long it's been there for, that's when the smell starts circulating.

"The smell was bad but the windows had been opened for air circulation [following the complaint] so it was probably even worse before that."

Joe and four of his workers cleared the mounds of rubbish from the small flat in three days before taking it to commercial waste and recycling centres to be disposed of.

He says that he and his staff find the work and making a positive impact on people's lives 'rewarding'.

Joe said: "95 percent of what was taken out of there was recycled - that's something we're very determined to do.

"He was happy that we were doing it and we're just happy to complete it, it's rewarding."

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.