A return visit to our favourite storage facility this evening for Hilary, Eugene, Adam, Fuad, Lise and Nick to do some more clothes sorting for the Care4Calais team, with clear instructions this week to sort out children’s clothing by specific ages so that the Care4Calais team could do a distribution during March.

Having learned a few lessons from our previous visit, including how to actually get into the facility and navigate the maze of storage to find the relevant lock up room, and to bring a couple of marker pens...we were able to get sorting pretty quickly this week, with empty boxes marked for the different age categories, and piles of donated items put into the corridors for the teams to go through and sort per the instructions from the team.

To the sound of a random playlist of 90’s/00’s tunes feeding through the facility’s speaker system, and our ongoing admiration for any clothing items made in Bangladesh to keep Fuad happy, plus the now familiar entertaining collection of somewhat unusual donated items (there was a whole dressing up box of items that we (mostly) resisted delving into), we soon had a “production line” going and filled 6 boxes, each marked with a different age category, by the end of the evening. There is still much to do, so another visit surely beckons before too long.

Seven GoodGymmers set out today to wage war on one of the less glamorous foes of East London: rubbish. And wow… there was a lot of it.

The Journey

A few of us kicked things off with a run from the London Aquatics Centre, warming up nicely before the main event. The air at the Aquatics Centre: fresh. The air under the bridge between Drapers Fields and Chobham Manor School: not so much.

The Task

The area around the bridge turned out to be extremely heavily littered — the kind of spot where you look around and instantly know:

“Yes, this is why GoodGym exists.”

Broken glass? tick

Mystery smells? tick

Random items that really shouldn’t be outdoors? tick

Enough rubbish to fill the Olympic pool? Maybe not, but we did manage to fill around 20 bags, which isn’t bad for a Saturday mission.

The Team

All seven of us got stuck in, spreading out across the site like a well‑coordinated litter‑picking strike force. The teamwork was top tier — grabbers grabbing, bags filling, jokes flying.

The Impact

By the end, the path looked cleaner, safer, and significantly less like a post‑festival campsite. It was one of those tasks where the difference was instantly noticeable — exactly the kind of satisfying GoodGym magic that reminds you why we do this.

...definitely helped with today's delivery of two bags of medicine for the always grateful Miss S.

A classic flat-pack mission today: helping Ms V assemble some under-bed drawers so that family are more easily able to visit her. A straightforward task on paper, though any seasoned GoodGymmer knows that furniture assembly has a habit of introducing plot twists just when you’re feeling confident.

Happily, Nick and I were spared any dramatic turns. All parts present, instructions broadly logical, and within the hour the completed drawers were sliding neatly into place under the bed without even a spare screw in sight.

Ms V’s home is no stranger to flat-pack arrivals — and as we gathered the packaging for recycling, we couldn’t help but notice there’s still space on the other side of the bed for another set of drawers. So the possibility of a further sequel remains…

For now though, mission accomplished — and a home made more welcoming.

Today GoodGym Newham were back at CleanGreen E15 - an area in Maryland that the local community are working hard to brighten up and add planting to discourage fly tipping.

After our first mission in January, clearing old soil and weeds from two of the planters and adding new compost, today we planted two cherry trees in there along several spring bulbs. We had to experiment a bit with the tent rope style system, designed to protect the new trees from strong winds, but got the hang of it in the end and even added them to a couple of the existing trees!

Thanks to everyone who came along today, shout out to Ash and Rob for their first ever GoodGym mission, hope to see you both back soon!

We’ll be back at CleanGreen in mid-March, so look out for the next listing 💪🌳

First up, a big welcome to Amy, who joined us for her first GoodGym task — great to have you along. And welcome back to Fuad for the second time in as many weeks. Brilliant to have you with us again, and great to share the task with you both.

We were back helping Care4Calais, this time at their new location just off Wick Lane. A group of four of us jogged over from the Aquatics Centre, meeting Amy at the gate to the storage building. On first impressions, this felt less like a task and more like an escape room in reverse, with a series of entry codes, room numbers to find and combination locks standing between us and the mission. Thankfully, only a small amount of wandering aimlessly was required before finding the right place, where Nick was ready and waiting for us.

Once inside, we had clear instructions: sorting baby and toddlers' clothes into age brackets. Simple, focused, we got stuck in - with the occasional query over significant differences in Australian vs UK or European sizes, whether ages were expressed in months or years, and taking delight in high-quality pieces originating in Bangladesh. Several boxes were sorted in around 40 minutes, and then we were on our way, now escaping in the correct order.

We’ll be back there again in about a month to help out some more.

What else is coming up?

This Saturday we’ve got our second visit to help Clean Green E15, revitalising some planters in Maryland. Join us there — and/or come along to parkrun first. It’s likely to be local, either Hackney Marshes or Wanstead; we’ll update the listing page once confirmed.

London Fields Junior parkrun - there are GoodGym volunteers here most Sundays and it's always great fun.

No Newham task lined up for next Tuesday, but Tower Hamlets are at Ocean Youth Connexions on Monday if you need a weekday GoodGym fix. Otherwise, we’re expecting to be back the following week (17th) at Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground. Keep an eye on the listings for updates.

See you soon 👋