Kash and Sevan returned to help Ms V, over a year after their and GoodGym's first visit to her. She plans to move into sheltered accommodation and is working to reduce her belongings to only what she really needs.

Paper Round

Kash and Sevan started the task by turning paper girl and paper boy, moving documents from the bottom of a cupboard that Ms V could no longer bend to reach. The paper route delivered them to Ms V's bed to be reviewed later. Next, a cabinet full of folders was opened and more paper rounds took paintings to Ms V's bedside. Finally, a mysterious yellow bag was the last delivery, hooked out of a high cupboard that Ms V couldn't reach into herself.

Ms V, noticing Kash and Sevan's all black outfits and trail running bags commented

"You look like you're ready to go deep sea diving, Kash. So do you, Sevan" - Ms V

20 minutes had passed and Ms V was quite happy with what the GoodGymers had achieved for her. Kash and Sevan weren't though and asked if she'd like some help to work through the items stacked on and around her bed, which Ms V cautiously agreed to.

Paper Maché

Ms V confessed to being a bit of a hoarder, who liked to keep record of everything. As they worked through documents, some as early as 1994 from her housing association were unearthed. These as well as other sensitive files went into a bag destined to become papier maché, alas, not to be formed into Tracey Island nor the GoodGym logo. Ms V's artistic tendencies only stretch to painting these days. Ms V explained why she was going to mash up the paper. She had a nosy, bin diving neighbour!

"The woman downstairs said that she knows nothing about me. That I'm a mystery to her, despite the fact I've lived here over 20 years" - Ms V

Those documents were the easy part. Photos and paintings were discovered, which needed more time to be reviewed. There were 3 art related VHS tapes too that Ms V wasn't ready to discard, even though she said that she'd never owned a VCR 😕. A few items were set aside for donation to charity and 2 books from Ms V's childhood, the Collins Magazine and Cynthia Asquith's Annual, brought back her happy memories of the books themselves and family members who had gifted them.

Paper-less

Sevan scored a small win by convincing Ms V that she could see colour photos of an elegant looking Zsa Zsa Gabor on her computer rather than keeping an old black and white photo, torn from a magazine. He also turned jeweller to assess a partial set of silver cutlery that had been left to Ms V, but according to its stamp, it was only silver plate so not worth keeping.

Kash and Sevan managed to dispose of a few items and to deliver a black bag full of old non-sensitive papers down the paper chute to the recycling bin. On the way to the tube, they reflected on how hard it was to let go of memories from the past.

"The other things are sentimental. If I had a scrapbook, I'd find it hard to part with too" - Kash

"All of our memories will be digital. They'll probably be lost to some data corruption before we reach that age" - Sevan

😢