Di at Baby Basics was delighted to have Team GG back to help out this week, and put us to work sorting through massive piles of children's clothing straight away.

Mani joined us for her very first task this evening, and was warmly welcomed by the group. She, Laura and Jane worked to sort out tiny clothes, shoes and toiletries in the stock room whilst the rest of the group tackled knits, hats and clothes in the main room.

Lucy was quite taken with a number of the hats she sorted, trying many on. Very dashing she looked too! Those sorting the toddler clothes got to test out their stylist skills by making up outfits from the donated clothing. I think there are going to be some incredibly fashionable toddlers out and about in the near future! In every single size of clothing there was a surplus of leggings and trousers - a whole lot of excess bottoms!

The GoodGym Portsmouth team were out in force this evening to help Diane and her team get the Empower Centre spruced up ready for another year of supporting families.

Our original task was just to get the kitchen cleaned, which Judy very enthusiastically volunteered to do, with assistants Katie and Lucy.

Most of the team spent the task in the old shipping container that doubles as a food store, and Captain Detail Jo ran a tight ship getting things in order.

The remaining squad were cleaning and sorting toys in the store cupboard. Mini GoodGymer Alice spent a lot of time quality testing all of the equipment, whilst Dave channeled his own Captain Detail persona to get everything stacked back in place.

Great work everyone, plenty of deeds and kms logged for the January Challenge!

First off, Happy Birthday to our lovely Judy - thanks for choosing to spend your birthday evening with us!

After some speedy bike repair work by Jo and Dave, we split off into two teams to tackle the tasks Di had arranged for us.

Judy and Samantha were in their element sorting toiletries and packing up hospital packs for new mums, whilst the rest of Team Baby Store were sorting donations and tidying up boxes of baby clothes. There was a little bit of cooing over cute little baby vests and sleepsuits.

Team Food Bank put together food and household packages, put away donations and tidied the lovely bundles that had been put together by Baby Basics volunteers earlier in the day.

It's always amazing how much we can get done in such a short space of time, and Di certainly seemed over the moon. Great work, guys.

Well done Tracey and Dave for responding to the request from Baby Basics for hand-knitted cardigans for newborns.

Tracey is finishing off 3 cardigans, hot off the knitting needles!

Dave enlisted his Mum and her knitting group who came up trumps with a beautiful selection of different colours and styles.

All of them will be included in various Moses baskets of gifts and essentials for new Mums who have very little to prepare for their new arrival.

A trip to Baby Basics tonight to help clean up at the back of the premises in order to make room for a food bank reshuffle.

There was plenty of dust, cobwebs and dirt along with a couple of spiders. Luckily for Holly, there was a less dusty (but still dirty!) job of cleaning the slow cookers so they could be stored away.

Dave also brought some of the teeny baby cardigans that his mum's knitting group have been making, bagging a double good deed in the process.

We were well looked after and sent away with snacks after having a drink and a rundown of the future plans.

There are plenty of other good deeds to be done here so watch this space for future listings.

Alternate report title: How Many GoodGymers Does it Take to Unfold a Buggy?

The answer is 3!

Big thanks to Judy who spotted this potential task on a Facebook post from Baby Basics.

Their food bank is reopening tomorrow and they needed extra hands to help clean the kitchen, pull out shelves, lift & shift, clean the various rooms in the huge space at the Empower Centre.

Nia was on her second ever GoodGym good deed and got to wrestle with a Henry hoover and lift some heavy crates. Full GG induction completed!

Judy jumped at the chance to scrub the oven trays clean (& they did look transformed by the time she finished!).

Jen used her work experience and examined all the prams to make sure they were roadworthy after Sinéad had cleaned them. Dave's engineering skills were put to use in the collapse/erect buggy test.

Aoife and Jo were applying logic to the stock of toiletries followed by a cutlery stock take.

Tony, Vicki and I cleaned the tablecloths, a strangely satisfying job before helping out with other areas.

It was a classic GoodGym task with plenty of tasks to do and a good feeling that we'd help make a difference by the end. Well done team 👏👏