We made our first trip back to MOPP for a few years this evening and seeing how much the service has grown in that time was amazing.

Our task was to shift a massive pile of sofas to create two walk-through passages, making it easier for staff and volunteers to see what items they have available.

There was lots of lifting and shifting, and application of skills from classic games Tetris and Jenga!

Jen and Dave have also taken up the new hobby of furniture parkour after realising sometimes the path of least resistance is over rather than through!

Well done Portsmouth GoodGym! Unwanted items sitting in the back of our cupboards will help those setting up a home for the first time after homelessness.

We gathered a great selection of items for food preparation, eating & drinking, which will help those who are starting out with nothing.

And we ticked all the boxes for re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle.

Today we helped prove the phrase "many hands make light work". In a task that was meant to take 4 hours, 3 GoodGymers along with a group of MOPP's enthusiastic helpers managed to get it done in 2.

The units have been painted and had the new panels fitted so it was just a case of moving the sofas all back into their normal storage spot.

Lifting, shifting, flat bed "driving" and sofa jenga was the order of the day. Along with a bit of singing along to the tunes from the painter's radio!

There may be some muscle aches tomorrow...

Today we helped out the Moving on Project.

They are getting their boarding replaced so they needed to shift out all the furniture from the storage garages. Lots of lifting and shifting required.

Fortunately some more volunteers arrived a bit after us so all the furniture was moved safely ready for new panels to be put in. They'll need some painting and furniture will need to be moved again so watch this space for more MOPP tasks!

We also got to sample some lovely baking from one of the team! 👍