A busy evening was had by GoodGym Kingston as we helped the Save The World Club charity move a load of old furniture.

The charity has been running for over 20 years with the aim of saving items from landfill or incineration and keep it circulating through upcycling, redistribution and public art. As much as the intentions are wonderful, they simply can't save it all and tonight's activity involved clearing one of their storage areas of unusable furniture.

Marcos, Luke and Dave got busy with loading an empty skip with heavy old bed frames, tables, cots etc. Meanwhile Jana, Hazel and Rachel were moving a load of mattresses and sofas from one part of the storage unit to another are to enable easier access and free up space.

Many hands made light work and we had soon cleared all that we could. A really satisfying task and some great progress made. Mission accomplished.

Many hands certainly made light work on Tuesday night with our Group run taking 11 Goodgymers to Save the World Club.

The local charity were in desperate need of some serious manpower to help sort and clear their Berrylands site - which is full of pre-loved items waiting to be resold - before their lease ends in a few days time.

Tariq had a long list of manual jobs for us and I can confidently say we powered through them! Lifting huge wooden boards into their van, clearing garages, loading up a skip and moving furniture including an awkwardly shaped stage and several rolls of heavy carpet and astroturf.

For a group who usually boast about their leg power, this task was quite a challenge, requiring some sheer strength! But Petra, Nathan and Dave had that in bucket loads. And of course with everyone’s enthusiasm and a few human chains, we got loads done. It was great to have Nina join us on her first task and congratulations to Doris, who completed her 10th Goodgym task.

At the end there was a treat in store, as we all got to enjoy a refreshing alcohol-free beer, courtesy of Goodgym partner Athletic Brewing Co. Cheers!

Meeting up with Tariq and Des from the Save The World Club in Berrylands was like meeting up with comedy greats, Morecombe and Wise. Quick wit, funny puns and these two riffing off each other (and us), even when when we were hoicking sofas into the van. A quick tour round the circulatory revealed the Aladdin's Cave of furniture, bric-a-brac and all manner of weird and wonderful things. Claire recounted the last visit where there was a room of mirrors and the GoodGymers had fun trying on a box of hats. Not this time, sadly, as our job was to move old mouldy couches from outside to make room for a firepit. We nearly lost Dave when he put his foot through the stage but the show must go on. Heavy leather sofas with metal mechanisms that got caught in ladders and pallets gave us a good workout and getting them into the van to maximise the space was the tricky bit. Sofa so good. Fortunately, Melissa works in operations so she figured out the logistics - she must be a terrific Tetris player. Underneath the couches was a kayak - canoe believe it!

Once the van was full with the larger items we headed over to the front of the building where we collected old bits of unwanted plastic and filled the gaps in the van. Rain stopped play in the end as a windy rainstorm saw us say goodbye to Tariq and Des. It's a hard job saving the world but they do it in great humour.

Ok maybe a bit of an overstatement, but true fact is this new organisation to GoodGym Is officially called The Save the World Club. So of course GoodGym wanted to learn more...

Run by Des, the organisation literally collects what the community no longer want or what charity shops can’t sell, repurposes it and finds new uses. When we were there a shipment was being prepared for Uganda - of old bedding, toys and a bit like the warehouse we were in, a bit of every everything under the sun!

There are also some ace artists next door and a cycling workshop venture led by Gary.

Our task...We made an electric avenue by emptying the shelves of old electronic items to move the shelving racks along the wall. As we moved boxes of tv remote controls we found a new meaning to working remotely. Des felt a shelf confidence boost as we complimented his self building skills and great pun work! That mallet made for some whacking good shelf building.

As the racking and boards came together GoodGym found a new meaning of a board meeting.

It was an Episode of Master Shelf.

A big welcome to Jassy who was on her first GoodGym mission. We hope you enjoyed this electric task and will join us again soon at the next challenge.

And a big thank you to Des for hosting us. Would be great to do more for STW!

Pun credits: Kate and Des