It's been three weeks since minced pies were a thing. Now, it's minced Christmas trees that are trending. And what do you do if you have a pile of ex-Christmas trees dropped in your park in the form of woodchip and a sizeable puddle at the edge of a path? You call GoodGym!

Linda from Blondin Consortium knew exactly what to do and arranged for a team of eight GoodGymers to come and help spread woodchip along a regularly flooded path to the community pavilion in Blondin Park.

Steph, Conor, Sevan and Kash ran to the park from Ealing Broadway, Freya walked, and Andy and James cycled. Ash was determined to come all the way from a distant part of the neighbouring borough, which was not an easy route, but he still made it to the session!

In less than 40 minutes, a small crowd of people, equipped with head torches, wheelbarrows, spades, shovels, and a rake, dealt with the entire woodchip pile and covered the problematic path edge with a moisture-soaking layer.

Traditionally, after the session, Linda invited the GoodGymers for a short break in the pavilion to recharge their energy with a cup of hot chocolate before their run back. Just as if there wasn't enough sweetness in the hot beverage, Steph brought a double treat to share! Ms F, an older lady whom Steph supports with groceries, donated pink champagne truffles to GoodGymers. What a lovely gesture!

To round off the weekend, Kash and Sevan were shopping for a new beneficiary, Mr N, who suffered with Asperger's syndrome. It made it hard for him to go to crowded places as they made him anxious, so he'd requested help from GoodGym to deliver his weekly shop. As an Iceland shopper, his groceries ended up being quite bulky and heavy. Having 2 people and pairs of hands was actually really helpful to get everything back to Mr N's flat.

Inside the flat Kash and Sevan were curious why Mr N had asked them to buy dog food when they could see cat feeders and litter trays on the floor. It turned out that Mr N didn't actually own any pets at all. He was caring for stray animals in the community, who he found to be much more agreeable (and less destructive) than humans. The dog food was for a local fox that Mr N had taken a liking to and the cat feeders were for a couple of strays that had been abandoned by another resident in his block. Despite having his own problems, Mr N took the time and effort to care for others in his neighbourhood, but only the ones living good lives.

Ms C was no stranger to Sevan and Kash. In fact, the GoodGymers had met each other for Sevan's first mission at Ms C's. Today, rather than working in her garden, the team was helping with decluttering. Ms C needed to free up some room in her kitchen and was hoping to put some items in the storage behind two fridges that were blocking access to it.

With the bulky appliances out of the way, Sevan and Kash opened the storage door and faced a wall of stuff. There was no more room to use there. Ms C wanted to see everything out and decide what she could part with. It was not an easy task. The GoodGymers quickly ran out of space on the kitchen floor, rarely able to move the items into the corridor, where they meant to be donated or disposed of. In the overwhelming majority of cases, Ms C's verdict was:

"Oh, that's good. I'll keep that."

Ms C wasn't convinced that challenging the need for multiple similar items that served the same purpose could be a good starting point to downsize.

"Another steamer. Do you need two of them?" - Sevan.
"I have four steamers!" - Ms C.

Sevan and Kash weren't sure where all the other steamers were, but the two they had taken out of the storage eventually went back in - just like two cleaning mops, two garden hoses, two mirrors (one with a crack) and three rolls of gift wrapping paper. Some other things that ended up returning to the storage felt like a no-win scenario: not destined to be removed (because reading health data was important), nor meant to be used (because the monitoring results were too unsettling to uncover).

Removing the largest box - a CRT-type TV - was the big win, yet Ms C advised putting it in the corridor for the time being, hoping that she could arrange a charity shop collection. Fingers crossed that one way or another, she will be able to get rid of it soon.

Ms C was cautious of the time, so Sevan and Kash managed to go through everything in the storage, then put back all the belongings worth keeping. They put away some items from the kitchen not needed immediately, left out other things Ms C thought she'd start using, and created extra room in the storage for future use. The GoodGym duo and Ms C made worthwhile decluttering progress - one storage space at a time!