One hour, two rooms, 3 units, 5 buggies and a million boxes v’s 10 GoodGymers.

Did we win? Of course we did with a lot of team work.

Having created a human chain from upstairs to downstairs we passed the boxes upstairs for stacking. This was relatively straightforward so we moved on to buggies, play mats, cots, toys and anything we could find. The pile grew bigger and bigger and higher and higher and we were at risk of being swallowed up by play mats and buggies so some Growbaby Tetris was required. Rooms virtually cleared there was one big unit left. After a lot of huffing and puffing it went up the stairs with not a mm to spare. Well done to Saber and Tanya’s husband.

It was amazing to see the empty rooms and we rewarded ourselves with chocolates, thank you Tanya.

We will be back next week for round 2 of Growbaby v’s GoodGym.

Armed with head torches, bright lights and an hour to make a difference, Kingston GoodGym headed into the darkness at Claremont Gardens to help Kingston Council improve the pond area.

After a briefing from Georgina, we split into two teams. Jonathan, Dave, Rachel and Anna tackled the invasive sumac threatening the pines, quickly filling garden waste bags with the help of saws and loppers.

Meanwhile, Jana, Tom and Georgina took on the two willows beside the pond. Tom sawed through the larger willow’s main trunk, and we chopped up the branches before turning our attention to the smaller tree.

Small willow, BIG roots! All three of us dug and cut our way around its surprisingly deep root system, discovering that the rope edging the pond was tangled in it too.

The larger willow proved too much for our tools and one saw sadly met its match during Jana’s attempt! We focused on the smaller willow instead, managing to remove most of its roots through a determined team effort.

An hour well spent, with bags filled and good progress made. A community group is being sought to help care for the gardens, so hopefully our efforts will sow the seeds for more local involvement.

Well done, everyone! Where there’s a willow, there’s a way!

This week GoodGym Kingston headed to Elm Road Recreation Ground to help the Friends of Elm Road Rec with some autumn maintenance.

Playgrounds and recreation grounds are such important community assets we were pleased to be able to pop down to lend a hand to give this one some attention. Our task was to tackle the weeds and fallen leaves building up around the playground, particularly beneath the fences and along the perimeter, where debris can create trip hazards and litter can accumulate.

Armed with bags, litter pickers, secateurs, and rakes, the team got stuck into clearing weeds, collecting litter and sweeping up the autumn leaves. The nights are certainly drawing in as we all had to have have our head torches on by the end!

What a great turnout we had too. This week we had a running, walking and cycling group. We were also delighted to welcome two new GoodGymers to the team. A lovely way to spend an evening, get active and give something back to a local community space.

Big thanks to the Friends of Elm Road Rec for having us and providing a great collection of tools. We hope the recreation ground and playground is looking a little tidier - before another drop of autumn leaves!

Four GoodGymers descended on Stay Well this morning for what turned out to be a very satisfying hour of weed warfare.

Tom was our last-minute recruit – and excellent timing it was too, as four turned out to be exactly the magic number needed to get the job done. Sometimes things just weed themselves out nicely…

Our first mission was the front flower beds, which were sporting a rather impressive crop of weeds. Armed with pickaxes, Jana, Tom and Emily got stuck straight in, while Saber tackled another bed nearby. Before long, weeds were flying and the beds were beginning to look considerably less wild.

Then we spotted some brambles making a bid for world domination around the Stay Well sign. We couldn't leaf them there, so naturally they became our next victims.

With an increasingly enormous pile of greenery at our feet, we went hunting for the green waste bin. Unfortunately, the green bin had other ideas and was nowhere to be found. After a fruitless search, we admitted de-leaf and temporarily piled everything into a general waste bin.

Round the back we went, where the four of us tackled the weeds poking their way through the paving. And then came the plot twist of the morning: we found the green bin! 🎉

Cue a glamorous bit of bin-to-bin weed transfer and all was right with the world again.

While we were there, we also admired Raleigh Houses' very smart new shed and the beautifully organised gardening tools inside. Frankly, it was some serious shed envy.

And somehow, after all the digging, weeding, bramble battling, bin hunting and shed admiring, we'd completed the lot in an hour.

Best of all, the lovely people at Raleigh House had left us brownies as a reward. Needless to say, after all that hard graft, we didn't need much persuading.

A blooming good morning all round!

There’s nothing quite like a therapeutic group session to wind down at the end of the day, and our long-overdue return to Full Cycle delivered just that. It had been far too long since our last visit, and the workshop was definitely in need of a little GoodGym magic!

With a well-versed team of regulars, we divided and conquered. While one group got to work recycling the mountain of inner tubes, others found a peaceful flow sorting through tyres - there was something surprisingly meditative about turning all that rubber chaos into neat, organised piles.

The team breezed through the heavy lifting, cleaned up a selection of bikes, and sorted through the cardboard recycling. With time to spare, we grabbed brooms and brushes to clear behind the desk and sweep the workshop floor, leaving the entire space spotless and free of debris.

Massive well done, everyone - we wheely smashed through the jobs!