Some decluttering missions disguise themselves as tasks labelled simply as "bed move". This wasn't the case with an urgent mission Sevan and Kash had signed up for Sunday afternoon. It was quite the opposite: a furniture move mission camouflaged itself as "decluttering". Or rather - the task involved both decluttering and dismantling and relocating two divan beds. What a legendary scope! Luckily, the extended team for the job was equally legendary.

Mrs V's daughter, Ms G, arrived seconds before Sevan and Kash finished their run-walk from Pitshanger to Southall at the beneficiary's doorstep. Ms G introduced the GoodGymers to her mum and dad, and proceeded upstairs to show Sevan and Kash what needed to be done. The three devised a plan, with no guarantee that they could complete the whole endeavour in the time available.

Pack the clutter on the Alpha bed in the Alpha room and move the bags downstairs. Dismantle the Alpha bed, take it downstairs and take it outside of the house. Hoover the floor in the Alpha room. Pack the clutter on the Beta bed in the Beta room and move the bags and boxes downstairs. Dismantle the Beta bed, take it to the Alpha room and assemble it there. Make more space in the Beta room.

The Beta room, once cleared, was to house Mrs V’s new hospital bed to reduce the risk of pressure sores, while the Alpha room was to serve as a temporary bedroom for Mrs V and her husband for a couple of nights while the family awaited the delivery of the hospital bed.

At step two of executing the plan, the GoodGymers bumped into Ms R - another daughter of Mrs V, who had just arrived and was ready to lend a hand. The sisters, Ms G and Ms R, directed the GoodGymers to the side of the house, helping store the pieces of what was the Alpha bed out of sight. Then they proceeded to hoover the Alpha room - or at least they intended to. It turned out that Mrs V's hoover hadn't been charged, so the daughters had to resort to instantaneous sweeping while Sevan and Kash moved to step 4 in the Beta room.

When Kash carried a batch of packed clothes found on top of the Beta bed downstairs, she heard a doorbell and opened the door to the third daughter, who came to help.

"It's great to have a team of five," Sevan rejoiced.

While the three sisters, having found three dustpans, frantically removed thick layers of dust accumulated for years, or maybe decades, Kash stepped into the Alpha room with a bold announcement.

"The bed is ready to move!"

The statement was slightly premature, as Kash didn't anticipate what she and Sevan would find between the mattress and the surface of the Beta bed. Similar to the Alpha bed, its counterpart from the Beta room hid stratigraphic layers from different decades under the mattress: blankets, dozens of underwear pieces, a whole layer of colourful rags and even a pillow. Kash struggled to find a logical explanation for the accumulation of the fabrics, while Sevan theorised that the deposits were deliberate and served as a filler to ease the unevenness of the ageing mattress. Clearly, this solution couldn't work forever, and that's exactly what brought the GoodGymers to Mrs V.

Excavating the strata of clothes, rags and blankets by Sevan and Kash to free the Beta bed bought the sisters enough time to sweep the Alpha room.

The Beta room's bed construction, though similar on the surface to the other divan bed, was actually much simpler. It only took undoing two screws to remove the headboard and move the bed piece by piece to the Alpha room. The team completed the critical step 5 with 89th minute on the clock - bang on time! The three sisters were happy to move a few more things around in the Beta room, while the GoodGymers offered to carry the heaviest ones downstairs before leaving the house. The most important thing was that there was enough space in the Beta room to install the hospital bed, and that Mrs V and her husband had a place to sleep before the arrival of the new bed. What a mission it was!

Some of the junior parkrun crew who had met in the morning - and already shared a chatty run, a task and a table in a coffee shop in Acton - decided to stick together for the next session with Care4Calais. Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash ran 4.5 km from Acton to Hanger Hill to help task owner Tamzin turn unsorted clothes donations into neat parcels with the goods asylum seekers needed most.

The three welcomed Basia to her first group session in Ealing, although she had already had a taste of GoodGym in Richmond. Great to have you with us, Basia, and we hope to see more of you in Ealing!

After a break from Care4Calais in August, when requests for parcels had been rare enough for Tamzin to manage them without our help, we were glad to be back. Tamzin’s dog, Dora, greeted us with vigorous tail-wagging, making it clear that she was just as excited to see us.

Sevan, the most experienced of the group, joined Tamzin to put together men’s clothing packs. The tracksuits bought for the asylum seekers with council funding were anything but vibrant: the jumpers, T-shirts and bottoms were all the same shade of grey. Hopefully, it’s the novelty and comfort of the clothes, rather than their colour, that brightens the recipients’ day.

Meanwhile, Basia, Steph and Kash enjoyed sorting the latest men’s and women’s clothes donations, discovering what curiosities they might find among otherwise sensible and practical outfits. Nothing particularly stood out, apart from a couple of T-shirts bearing some rather rude vocabulary. Perhaps an impressive collection of Lacoste tops?

Four GoodGymers finished the task ahead of time and set out for the next chapter of their Sunday afternoon. An indoor session not only helped the asylum seekers receive appropriate clothing, but also kept the GoodGymers out of the rain during a brief shower.

Four GoodGymers finished the task ahead of time and headed off to the next part of their Sunday afternoon. The indoor task not only helped ensure that asylum seekers received suitable clothing, but also kept the GoodGymers out of the rain during a brief shower.

The children at Junior parkruns are all characters in their own right. After the start of the of the new school term, there were a lot of new faces. Some fast, some slower, all with their unique personalities.

The volunteers brought their personalities to the parkrun too, with run director Geoff bringing his Wonky Bear, made from reused parkrun t-shirts, others being more casual than usual and Maria stepping forward to lead the first timers' briefing and today's warm up with Kash supporting.

Maria triple-roled today, also barcode scanning alongside Sevan. Divy funnel managed a well behaved group of runners ahead of Joanna who dished out today's finish tokens. Chris and Steph were marshals and Kash was last to the finish, tail walking again.

Today's final runner was quite stop-start. Their mum tried to motivate them around the course and for a while the prize of getting some jelly babies worked and then mum upped the offer to cake. There was also free motivation all around in the universal Junior parkrun power up of high fives 🖐️. Rather than meeting hand with hand, our Junior chose to rush the outstretched paws with a headbutt and had lots of fun doing it.

Sunday morning and 4 Goodgymers ran from Ealing Broadway station to Acton park before volunteering with the junior par runners. The overcast and grey weather did not stop them to wizz through the streets of Ealing.

A month after another mission across London to fit a new roller blind, Kash and Sevan found themselves in an identical situation a lot closer to home. It wasn't only fitting a new blind that matched the previous mission. They were in the kitchen again and they were kneeling on the worktop in front of the kitchen window, which was (again) agony for their shins. Mrs A had a solution for this... cushions and they did an amazing job ☁️!

When it came to fitting the new blind, Kash and Sevan had been told that no tools would be needed, which confused them a bit. Were they supposed to magic the screws into the wooden batten above the windows? 🧙🧙🏻‍♂️ Not even their skills stretched to that. Mrs A claimed she'd said that no drill was needed, which didn't line up with the unopened instructions either. In any case, Mrs A didn't have a drill or screwdrivers that could be used. Luckily, Sevan had raided his tool bag in the morning and came prepared with 2 of his own screwdrivers which allowed the GoodGymers to complete the task.

"This feels like déjà vu" - Kash
"You mean déjà screw" - Sevan

The biggest problem putting up the new blind was getting everything level. With a bit of trial and error and a lot of force to get the blind attached to the wall, it worked perfectly first time. Kash and Sevan had progressed slowly to get it right first time, possibly helped by Mrs A's prayers nearby for more light to enter her kitchen.

Feeling quite pleased with themselves, Mrs A then told Kash and Sevan that she also wanted a curtain rail to be put up in her bedroom. That was unexpected and they only had 30 minutes left ⏳.

Mrs A gave the GoodGymers choices. She had 2 curtain poles available, so Kash and Sevan chose the easiest one to fit to try and wrap up on time. It was easier than the blind to position and measure, so they sped through getting the fixings into the wall, again missing some key tools. With the rail in place, it took a few attempts to get the curtain to sit well and they were done, pretty much on time.

"If I ever need to put up my own blinds, after all these missions I'll know exactly what to do." - Sevan

Mrs K loved her garden, but could no longer tend to it because of reduced mobility and poor health. Although she didn't live entirely alone, her companion, T, wasn't much help with gardening. T was a dachshund - one of the most adorable creatures you can imagine - but not designed to wield rakes or shears in her short, cute paws. That's what GoodGymers are for.

Enter Sevan and Kash, a GoodGym duo who crossed the border of the Ealing Borough on Saturday afternoon and ran through Boston Manor Park, then along the canal to Isleworth. Mrs K greeted them with the common warning:

"You haven't seen a garden in such a bad state."

Oh, yes, they had. Entering Mrs K's back garden, the GoodGymers didn't face the wall of brambles, which was already one step better than the most overgrown places. There was still plenty to do. To help Sevan and Kash focus, Mrs K outlined the priorities: sweeping leaves and cutting back a bay tree, a rose bush and a hedge. Then, with a polite excuse, she retired upstairs.

"To watch cricket", she added furtively.

Kash, who loved cutting things back, decided that in that particular garden Sevan was better suited to the trimming jobs, being the taller of the two, while Kash, literally closer to the ground, would take care of the leaves. She didn't resist chopping a few brambles here and there, explaining that it was to reach the dry leaves underneath.

Sevan pruned the rose and the bay tree, then cut bushes to open the passage to the part of the garden behind the corner of the house. He was careful not to chop too much, as such an act would be hard to reverse in the short term.

Mrs K was pleased with the transformation and wanted to reward Sevan and Kash with a little tip. The GoodGymers politely declined the offer, noting that stroking T was the loveliest reward they had already earned.

A gentle walk along the canal was the start of today's task with HANGOT as our team walk to Osterley Lock, the most southerly orchard created by HANGOT. The walk gave everyone a good chance to chat before putting on their game faces and taking on a GoodGym favourite, wiping out brambles.

The first job was to make the front of the orchard, along the canal, look more inviting by clearing brambles and other weeds away. Keeping the orchards looking well maintained encourages the public to come in and discover the tasty delights and calm spaces inside. The whole team got to work, chopping, hacking and raking, making mincemeat out of brambles and other weeds, transforming the front of the orchard.

With the front of the orchard looking neat and professional, it was onto the priority number 2, to clear weeds and brambles from around each of the fruit trees. All of the cuttings were taking to the bramble graveyard on one side of the orchard. As it overflowed and became harder to climb to the top to add cuttings, so eventually GoodGymers started their own pile on the opposite side of the orchard to provide balance and more simply, to speed things up and not walk as far.

Right on time, the tidying was done, leaving task owner Clive really happy with what the team achieved. As a reward, Dora spied something that looked like a pear on one of HANGOT's trees. It was actually one of those mysterious quinces and it was close to being ripe. Scott wasn't so lucky in finding fruit for his brewing experiments as it had been a lean year for British fruit.

Next month, we'll be back at Osterley Lock, blitzing away brambles and more. Look out for a new listing coming soon.