Plymouth hoarder’s Stella can collection fills entire lorry as house …

A Plymouth hoarder’s leftover beer can collection was able to fill an entire lorry after professionals were called in to clear a property. The house, in the PL2 area, was cleared out last month and now looks totally transformed.

Extraordinary photos taken by the team who took away the mess show masses of empty Stella Artois cans throughout the entire dwelling. Matt Goodman, the man tasked with the clear out, described the hoard as ‘impressive’ and that ‘it was up there’ with the worst jobs he has done.

Matt’s company, Clear Junk, is a waste management firm based in Plymouth which specialises in clearing hoarder houses. After starting his business in the midst of the pandemic he says he is now no longer fazed by the jobs he does.

Discussing this particular job, he said: “To be honest, nothing shocks us anymore. We come and clear it and then that’s our job done.

“Nothing fazes me now, as you can imagine. We do this day in, day out but to be fair this job was impressive, I’ve never seen that many cans. We managed to fill an entire cage tipper with just cans.”

Despite the ‘impressive’ mass of cans, Matt and his colleagues were able to clear the property within a day.

He also said the mess was primarily made up of cans with rotten food and old takeaways adding to the stench. “There was lots of leftover takeaways and food wrappers but 90% of it was cans,” he said.

“We managed to clear it within a day. There were three of us there so we just cracked on really.”

Matt, owner of Clear Junk, clearing the last of the Stella Artois boxes (Image: Clear Junk)

Matt says he’s unsure what the future holds for this particular property but advised the next owner to ‘start again’. “It needs ripping out,” he said.

“The roof has been leaking over the years, there have been rats, there have been mice and there was a cat there at some point and a dog there at some point.

“You can imagine where all the food has been rotting and where the beer cans were there were no carpets so it’s all dripped through the floorboards. The smell is still there because it’s all soaked in.

“To be fair, it didn’t smell like alcohol. I think because it had been like it for so long it was just the smell of rotting food.”

Matt says it was ‘up there’ with one of the worst jobs he’s done (Image: Clear Junk)

When Matt and Clear Junk aren’t clearing out hoarder houses they offer their services to vulnerable people. The Plymouth businessman said: “We do a lot for the elderly or people with mental health, particularly when they can’t keep up with day-to-day tasks. We go in, clear it out and then help them get back on track.”

As well as its cleaning services, which also includes gardens and offices, Clear Junk also helps customers with removals, commercial waste collection and kitchen and bathroom fittings. But one new service which might interest more than most is trauma and crime scene clean-up.

It’s an area of the business Matt is looking to expand into. He said: “We’re going to go into it soon. They offer courses in the summer so I need to do my biohazard course so that’s when we can look into it.”

Clear Junk is a small family-run business and covers Plymouth, Plympton, Tavistock, Torpoint and all the surrounding areas.