When clutter hides a health risk
Hoarding cleanup with biohazards
A crowded home is not, by itself, a biohazard. It becomes one when the clutter hides human or animal waste, rotting food, sewage or mold. That part needs protective gear and proper disposal.

What Manchester's Health Department looks at
The city's guidance on insanitary living conditions says that having a lot of belongings is not by itself a health code violation. The Health Department gets involved when conditions can spread disease: food waste, human or animal feces, sewage back-ups or no sanitary way to get rid of waste.
If you are worried about someone else's home, the Health Department is at (603) 624-6466, weekdays 8 to 5. If it is a family member's home, you can call a cleanup company directly.
How a cleanup usually goes
A walk-through
The company looks at the home with you and agrees what is biohazard work, what is sorting, and what stays.
The person comes first
If the person still lives there, a good company works with them, not around them. Ask how they handle that.
Waste out, then sorting
Contaminated material goes out sealed. Papers, photos and valuables are set aside for the family.
Cleaning and disinfecting
Floors, kitchen and bathroom first, then the rest.
Questions
Will the person lose all their things?
No. Only what is contaminated or rotting has to go. Ask the company to agree with the family, in writing, what will be kept.
Does anyone report the home to the city?
A cleanup company is hired by you. Whether to involve the Health Department is a separate choice, usually made when someone else's health is at risk.
If it happened today
- Call 911 first. If someone is hurt, or you have found someone who has died, call 911 before anything else.
- Leave the room as it is. Police and the medical examiner's investigator may need to see it. Close the door and keep people and pets out.
- Wait for the release. Cleanup starts only after the police, and the medical examiner if involved, say the home or car is released.
- Then call. Call (603) 555-0105 when you are ready. Nobody will rush you.
When you are ready, call
An independent cleanup company that works in the Manchester area. You decide whether to hire them.