We were tonight visiting the HOPE charity shop and community hub. We were met by Peter, Pete and Tina. The first job on the cards was to relocate a load of unneeded furniture from the shop floor. It needed to be transported into the room above for storage out of the way. This would have been easier had the staircase not been removed!! In it's place there was now a ladder leading up through a small hatch, which led immediately onto to a steep boarded floor that you had to crawl up. As a team, the four of us somehow managed to manoeuvre up a bed, a dressing table, solid metal table supports (which I think were made from lead), display racks, boxes full of bits and a few chairs.

With the unwanted items removed from downstairs we could then get to some sorting. There are clusters of clothes crammed on the display rails. These often get knocked off, aren't in size order, aren't facing 'uniform' directions and the hangers are oft the wrong way around. All of these errors needed rectifying, and rectify we did! All the while there was banter flying all over the place with the two Peter's firing broadsides at each other which the rest of us were dodging by hiding behind the tonnes of secondhand clothes.

Our last task was rearranging some larger items so that wheelchairs could navigate the shop with impunity.

By the time we had finished all the work the shop was looking at least twice as good as it did when we first arrived.

Peter also informed us of some more volunteering opportunities coming up later in the year, so watch out for some new tasks being listed soon!