ChicPea Carry

Kash and Sevan arrived at Ms E's new flat for the second weekend in a row. We knew what to expect this time. Piles of boxes to be emptied and a very decisive Ms E, who knew what to keep and what to discard.

Kash and Sevan were split up so that they wouldn't conspire in any mischief, with Kash working in the kitchen and Sevan under Ms E's watchful eye in the living room.

Kash was asked to empty food into the kitchen cupboards. An apparently simple task. Working through the boxes, she found rice, noodles, baked beans and tins of vegetables. As she found more food, she tried to organise the 2 cupboards that she'd been asked to fill with them. With each new carton opened, she discovered more rice, more peas and more noodles. In all, she counted 25 tins of marrowfat peas.

At the same time, Sevan was working through items stored in the bedroom to discover what was there. Ms E had decided where she would keep her clothes, so jeans, dresses and jumpers were refolded and placed into drawers. Many of the clothes were no longer wanted by Ms E despite being fashionable and in good condition, so it was actually decided to throw away more than she kept.

As the pile of clothes to send to the bin grew and grew, Sevan became more uneasy and suggested to donate them instead. Ms E replied that there was no one to take them even though there was a charity shop nearby.

Most of the boxes that Sevan opened contained clothes. To Kash's surprise, he also found some full of rice and noodles. Kash had to think on her feet (and on a step ladder) to cram more into the cupboards. Ms E hadn't realised quite how many packs of these she had bought.

As the mission came to an end, Kash had convinced Ms E to only keep the food that she really needed in her kitchen and Sevan had offered to take bags of clothes to the charity shop on the main road on the way home. Another win for decluttering and reusing.

Kash came to help Sevan fold boxes to be recycled and discovered that there were 3 pieces of furniture to get rid of too, a lightweight garden chair, a recliner chair and a tall chest of drawers. Sevan had known about these, but there was so much else to get on with that he'd filed this knowledge under Later.

As we wondered how to get the large recliner out of the door, Ms E told us that there was a back door overlooking the area near the communal bins. Sevan took a look, made a risk assessment and decided that dropping the furniture and flattened cardboard off the balcony was the easiest and quickest approach. Sevan worked in the flat while Kash was the catcher, ferrying items to the right containers.

In 10 minutes we were done and the flat looked much clearer. We grabbed the charity donations and carried them to Camden High Street where they were gratefully received.

Kudos goes to Kash for the great, all encompassing pun!