Although our planned team of three became a determined duo after a late illness, small can be mighty, and Monday's GoodGym crew still managed to complete the primary mission in the bell tower at St John's church in South Wimbledon.

Years of bags, backs and bums had left the whitewashed walls of the ringing chamber looking rather tired, while recent electrical works had revealed a few previously hidden patches around a replacement fuse board. With a fundraising festival taking place on Friday, visitors will soon be touring the bell tower and seeing the bell ringers in action, making this the perfect time for a refresh.

Armed with brushes and rollers, we set about repainting the lower section of the ringing chamber and freshening up the precious storage space. By the end of the evening, the planned areas were looking noticeably brighter, cleaner and more welcoming.

Better still, our handiwork should now be resilient to another decade of wear and tear from future bags, backs and bums. Not bad going for a determined duo!

For Monday's group session, we were deployed across Merton's Community Fridge and Morden Baptist Church for a multi-front mission!

Working with strict tactical coordination (especially in the limited storage space), our three squads executed:

📦 Operation Storage: A military-precision evacuation of the shelves. The space was cleared, swept and scrubbed in controlled phases before items were strategically redeployed back into formation; a masterclass in spatial logistics.

💄Donation Sorting: Interception of a massive influx of makeup, systematically categorising items including lipstick and nail polish and boxing them up ready for the Christmas distribution period.

🧽 Kitchen Recon: Cleared drawers and shelves, scrubbing every surface to leave things fresh and inspection-ready ahead of an upcoming wedding.

Mission accomplished - a swift, highly organised operation that left the space deeply grateful. Well done team and welcome to Camila, Sarah, Usaama, Su and Robert on your first GoodGym session. We hope to see you again soon.

Under the glow of the setting sun, the GoodGym Merton team headed to Ridgway Community Garden to tackle a massive delivery of mulch. Two months ago we were tasked with the same, but this was a very different challenge!

With darkness descending fast, the team switched on their headtorches and got straight to business. We cleared away stubborn weeds, laid down a protective layer of cardboard, and spread as much woodchip as possible.

Along the way, we even paused for a quick photo and a chat with local MP Paul Kohler, before diving back into the task - adding tree replanting and conker gathering to our to-do list!

A huge, warm welcome to Joe and Ben for joining their very first session, and to Harry on completing his first-ever group run and task with us! What an absolute powerhouse of a team. In just one hour, we achieved the equivalent of two full-time gardeners working an entire day. Bet they couldn't do it in the dark 😉!

For our very first visit to Tooting & Mitcham Community Club, the team arrived armed with scrapers - only to immediately find ourselves in a bit of a sticky situation!

The wall we were tasked with was covered from top to bottom in stubborn adhesive pads. We certainly weren't going to let things get 'board', but it turned out to be a real test of endurance as we worked our magic furiously, making sure no pad was left behind.

It was a full-body workout, flexing muscles we didn't even know existed, just to force those relentless little squares to come off.

Massive well done to the team – it was a huge challenge, but we well and truly smashed it!