Hoarder cleaning across Edinburgh.

Hoarder cleaning is the clearance and deep clean of a property where belongings, rubbish or accumulation has built up over months or years, past the point where an ordinary clean fits. It runs in two halves. Clearance first, with items sorted, bagged and removed in categories agreed with you. Then heavy-duty cleaning of everything underneath, with odour work, biohazard remediation or pest treatment where the property needs it.

This is not tidying and it is not a deep clean in the usual sense. The teams who do this work know that hoarding usually sits on top of something else: a bereavement, ill health, age, a disability, or a long stretch when nobody was checking in. They work slowly and they take the resident with them.

In a tenement there is a practical layer on top. Everything leaves through a shared stair, often three or four floors, no lift, a turn at every landing. A skip on the street needs permission from the council and somewhere to sit. Any team quoting an Edinburgh flat should be talking about that at the walk-through, not discovering it on the day.

A hoarder clean runs in stages, agreed with you up front so nothing lands as a surprise.

First the team walks the property with you, or with whoever is authorised, and agrees three categories: what stays, what goes to charity, what goes as waste. Anything sentimental or valuable is set aside. Post, identity documents and financial paperwork are bagged separately and handed to you to work through later, never binned.

Clearance then runs zone by zone. Bulky waste goes out through licensed channels, with the route down the stair worked out before the first bag moves. Charity-suitable items go to a nominated charity shop or collection. Sharps, out-of-date medication and anything contaminated is separated and disposed of through the right route.

Once the property is clear, the deep clean starts. Floors, walls, ceilings, fittings, appliances, inside every cupboard and drawer, behind and under everything. Odour work uses ozone or hydroxyl generators where the smell has gone into the fabric, which in an old flat with bare boards and lath-and-plaster it usually has.

Where the property has crossed into biohazard, meaning urine, faeces, food waste or pest contamination, the team switches to biohazard protocols for those zones: protective kit upgraded, licensed hazardous-waste disposal, certificate of cleanliness at the end.

The hard part of ringing a specialist about a hoarded property is telling a stranger what state it is in. Do that two or three more times for comparison quotes and the phone call becomes the obstacle.

Come through us and you tell it once. We brief the team before they ring, so they arrive at the walk-through already knowing the rough scope. No re-explaining on the doorstep.

Vetted means something specific here. We check public liability cover, waste carrier registration where waste is being carried, and background checks on anyone entering an occupied home. When we introduce a team we name the firm and say what we checked. We claim nothing on their behalf that we have not seen.

It costs you nothing. The price the team quotes is the price you pay. We are paid a referral fee by them after the job, not by you.

We connect hoarder cleaning customers with three vetted Edinburgh specialist partners, and we pick the right one for each case on certifications, availability and the specifics of the job.

Lead specialist for hoarder cleaning: Vetted clearance and heavy-clean team. Clearance work goes to teams equipped for volume and paced properly around a resident: sorting with the household rather than at them, waste out through registered carriers, and a deep clean once the property is clear. We name the firm and what we checked when we make the introduction. Waste carrier registration and background checks for occupied homes are confirmed before we make an introduction.

Also available: Vetted biohazard and trauma cleaning team and Vetted restoration and post-build team. We check public liability cover, licensed hazardous-waste disposal and background checks before we refer anyone. Public liability cover and the paperwork an insurer will ask for are confirmed before we put a name forward.

You don't choose the specialist yourself. On our call after you submit the form, we'll match your case to the right partner based on certifications, current availability, and the specifics. You pay the specialist directly. We never add a markup.