It's been a while since our last task at Traid, but when the store's new manager Abigail heard the Kilburn store manager raving about Goodgym she knew she had to get in touch. And we're so glad she did!

Mark and Sarah had both been to Traid before - in fact Mark recalled it was his first ever Goodgym task. So he was well placed to welcome Goodgym newbies Zuza and Karen. Both of whom have been meaning to come for some time and finally made it along - it was great to have you both!

We were met today by store supervisor Eva. Our task was to help the store volunteers with their seasonal reset: that is, to take all of the clothes off the hangers and toss them into boxes or (when the over-filled boxes threatened to break) cages. Hangers were sorted by type and tossed into bags.

The team continued happily with this system as the clothes gradually disappeared from the racks. Indeed they were so absorbed in their task they barely noticed time passing. As we got past our usual time limit for a task Sarah checked in with the others "you know you can leave if you need to". But no - completists the lot of them! Until there was only one task left.

Shoemageddon

Over the other side of the store, the shoe rack beckoned. Right shoes on the rack, left shoes behind the counter.

Having already established that this was a team who liked sorting and organising, this should be an easy task, right?

The team started by pairing the shoes that were obvious to match, due to bright colours or patterns. Zuza set about making sure the pairs, once paired, stayed together for life by attaching them together with laces, buckles, or rubber bands. Karen turned out to be an expert matchmaker.

And then there were the black shoes.

Black strappy sandals. Black block heels. Black platform shoes. Black pointy heels. Black shoes with a light inner. Black shoes with a black inner. Black sparkly shoes. Black matte shoes. Black suede shoes. Basically a hundred pairs of virtually identical black shoes.

The team tested their pattern recognition skills to the max. But there were still some shoes that remained resolutely single. Store volunteer Peter disappeared for a bit, before reappearing with a box of -

Yes! That one goes with this one. And finally a match for that bright green shoe! The team paired the remaining shoes up quickly.

Finally, there was nothing more for our team to do (let's ignore the fact the store volunteers remained to keep cleaning ahead of tomorrow's restock - heroes all!).

We said our goodbyes, and melted away into the night.

Emily and myself arrived and got straight to work with this familiar task at Traid to help the team there with their seasonal stock changeover. Or so we thought.

The usual task is to bundle all the unsold clothes into boxes, easy! But today they needed to send cages of carefully folded clothes on the hangers to another store for them to sell. So after a bit of a wonky start, the team graciously showed us the correct way to fold them on the cages, sorry! Correct folding method shown in photo! Emily even picked herself a fancy new GoodGym outfit!

We were all done in the allotted time and on our ways into the evening, to a life drawing class for one of us and home for a lie down for another of us. 😃

5 Goodgymmers catwalked their way to Traid on Wood Green High Road for an evening of interfacing and inboxing

Kudos galore

Big noise for Mark who joined us for his first ever task and was an absolute natural. Star!

And big love for Bianca who didn't let a bit of traffic get in the way of getting to the task this evening. Fashionably late indeed - love that attitude!!

You can both come again <3

Not too crabby

Just when you think that by now we can do a Traid task eve with our eyes closed, we are welcomed by the wonderful Traiders with news that tonight we are not taking clothes off their hangers but instead are packing everything together as it is - ready to be quickly unpacked at a different store the following morning.

We had to get used to a special folding style to make sure the hangers always ended up in the middle of the box to avoid any unwanted tears but once we got the hang of that, our Goodgymmers sailed through this task.

Halfway through, yours truly found a Lobster/Ant/Undetermined crustacean costume so in true Gramps' style, I had to don it for the occasion. It is surprising how little people bat their eyelids when you're running down the High Road dressed as an orange creature!

We're at woodside this eveningfor a spot of tree pit regeneration, and at Russell Park on Sundayfor a spot of birdwatching/ bird housebuilding session. Come!

On a sunny Wednesday evening, five of GoodGym's top-notch garment gurus swooped in to assist Traid with their epic stock changeover. We couldn't help but wonder why pulling clothes off hangers and chucking them into huge boxes was way more enjoyable than the reverse process. This revelation probably explains the chaotic state of some GoodGymers' wardrobes! With our illustrious leader out of action (get well soon, Euclides :)), Julie stepped in to showcase the finest finds from the racks, some of which were more racy than race-y. The sheer volume of stock to be sorted meant we worked hard to wrap things up within the designated hour. However, not wanting to leave a task unfinished (my personal nightmare!), we powered through and wrapped up 10 minutes late. Apologies to Nurjerhan, our Official GoodGym Timekeeper!

On this big windy night, the top team at Traid needed our help with their regular sale stock changing shenanigans, so a small but elite team was assembled.

I arrived at Traid at one minute to 6 to see chief GoodGym timekeeper Nurjehan already hard at work, EARLY! 👍⌚️ Emily arrived shortly after and in no time the three of us, along with the Traid crew, removed the many clothes hangers and packed up the four massive boxes with clothes, including an attractive bow tie and a fetching brown teddy bear skin bikini top.

Until next time! 👕👙

Six Goodgymmers tore through TRAID in a whirlwind, to help them get ready for the next load of donations.

Charity shops? Big fan

Sam strolled at the front door bang on 6 o'clock, with Dave arriving moments later and out of breath. We're regulars here for the stock change overs, but had to wait before tearing the old clothes off the rack, as there were still customers in the shop! We took advantage of the time, to hoover a few of the dusty fans.

Before long the doors were locked (and unlocked again as various GGers slipped in), and we could get cracking. The unsold clothes flew off the racks, including some very stylish knitwear, and a classic recipe teatowel begging to be turned into a dress. They'd had a good season, so had even less clothes left than normal, so we finished in record time. We discussed a couple of training sessions, but in the end decided to get an early night :D

Eukes is back next week for jet washing at Wolves Lane!