From dead animals, buckets of urine and rubbish piled high to the ceiling, there's one cleaning boss who has seen it all.

George Mensah has been clearing hoaders’ homes across the North West for more than a decade – making some shocking and gruesome discoveries over the years. The 58-year-old, who owns The Merseyside House Clearance company, has the challenging task of clearing out chaotic properties overflowing with human waste and clutter.

It’s mostly the families of hoarders who request the help of George and his team after the death of a relative. However, some referrals are made through social services, the NHS and even the fire service.

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The Liverpool-based cleaner has now shared some of the worst hoarders’ homes he’s seen throughout his career – including one that left him smelling so bad he needed to bathe himself in Dettol.

“We’ve been called to unattended deaths when someone has died alone and no one finds them for days, weeks or months,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “We’ve seen people die in bed and they’ve been there for so long the bodily fluids go through the beds, floorboards and drop into the kitchen below.

Some homes have been full of human faeces

“With unattended deaths, most of the properties are contaminated by gases in the air. They are highly toxic and when you go into a room like that, it clings to the hair follicles and the skin. You can have a shower and go to the pub, but you can still smell it.

“What I say to my team is have a bath and pour in two full caps of Dettol and have a soak. With a shower, you’re just masking it.

“I’m dealing with death all the time whether it’s death or approaching death. It hasn’t had an effect on me where I’ve needed counselling for it. It doesn’t take a toll on me – I’m really desensitised. I don’t get upset usually; I don’t know if that’s just me. I see it as a job.”

George remembers the time he was called to a former soldier’s home after his hoarding habit got out of control. The property was full of human faeces, coke cans and old pot noodles.

Some homes take up to a week to clean

“The guy said he had got himself into a rut after his wife died – it looked like someone had ransacked it,” George added. “The stench was absolutely terrible.

“We’ve had ones where we’ve got in and the person had been dead for six weeks. She had two dogs and the dogs lived off her body to survive.”

The cleaning boss was also called to the home of a severely overweight man and had to clear the property around him while he sat playing video games. “Social services sent me to a house and he was sat there watching telly because he’s a gamer,” he added. “He was 40-stone playing video games. We were emptying buckets of urine and human waste because he’s so big he can’t go to the toilet.”

George said the hoarding can't be blamed on a specific demographic as he has turned up to beautiful £750,000 houses filled to the brim with hoarded items. He says a hoarder can be anyone of any age, ethnicity or class and has even worked on the home of a former judge.

In May 2013, Hoarding Disorder was officially recognised as a mental disorder by the NHS. In 2016, the disorder claimed the life of two excessive hoarders from Yorkshire who perished in a fire at their home. Firefighters were unable to gain entry due to the house being so full of contents.

George Mensah says he loves his job

George can recall a building he visited in Manchester just over two years ago. “The sewers had backed up on themselves and there was human sludge waste in the student accommodation,” he said. “People had been putting baby wipes down the drain. We had to suck up the sludge and sanitise the area.”

George says while most cleans are finished within one to two days, particularly bad ones can take up to three days to clear, while some have even taken a week.

But the dad-of-two fears his team will be called to even more unattended deaths as the cost-of-living crisis continues into the winter months. “We’ve done three unattended deaths in two weeks which was unprecedented for us,” he continued.

George says there is no task too big

“Mark my words – because of the problem with the energy crisis, we now have people turning off the heating and that number is really going to go up. We’re going to find a lot of old people curled over and dying because it’s going to get that bad. We’re on the front line.

“When we go into a property, we know that individual better than the family know them. We know he was a Man City fan, we know he liked Guinness and we know he liked the odd game of bingo. We know everything about them – some good, some are bad.

“I love my job. I absolutely love it. I’m the director and it’s the brainchild of me. I can help other people; life is not about collecting all of this nonsense. It’s about enjoying family time and everything else.”

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