Task 32: Help someone de-clutter a room

One of the important aspects of the whole Challenges enterprise for me is to do something positive to help other people.  If I can enjoy myself at the same time, that's great, but like many people I'm happier sponsoring someone or donating to their chosen charity if it's for an activity that benefits others rather than simply something like a run or a walk.  Helping someone to de-clutter a room that they feel has got a bit out of hand and can't easily tackle on their own, for whatever reason, seems eminently worthwhile.  

As I love de-cluttering - not that you'd know it if you saw our house before I'd had a chance to bundle stuff away -  I was looking forward to tackling this task.  What I hadn't anticipated was how difficult it might prove to find someone who was willing to let me loose on their room.  A few friends had mentioned in the past that they felt overwhelmed by the clutter in their house and couldn't face tackling it alone, but they either felt embarrassed at the thought of having anyone else see it up close, or they were too busy working and/or looking after someone to spare the time, or they were in the middle of a family crisis and it simply wasn't a priority.

Eventually a friend who would prefer to remain nameless, although she realises that some people may recognise the photos below, decided that her garage - which she uses as a storage and laundry room - badly needed sorting out. She would happily have done it herself but unfortunately her arthritis makes that impossible, so she agreed I could be let loose - under her supervision - to tackle it as my Task 32. I donned my scruffs and headed to her house, armed with dustbin liners and a duster:

My friend has high standards so I knew the room wouldn't be a real tip, but when we inspected it to see what needed doing, it was clear it would take us a while:

Luckily it was a lovely sunny day so we were able to move things outside while we systematically tackled all the cupboards and drawers. To speed up the process we agreed some basic ground rules, eg anything rusty, perished, gungy etc could go straight out. My friend focused on the laundry side, I dealt with the DIY side, and we did the gardening and general storage together. 

It was very satisfying once we'd got about halfway through and could see the room starting to take shape, with drawers labelled with the contents (having been emptied and sorted first), each shelf dedicated to particular items such as outdoor shoes and vases, all electrical items (fuses, plugs, spare bulbs etc) placed together in one drawer, etc. Everything that could be recycled or which might be wanted by someone else was put in the relevant crates, old paint cans were piled in a separate bag for special handling, and plain rubbish was dumped in the bin for the refuse collectors.

After two hours we had a tea break, then resumed to finish the task before retiring - creaking and groaning - for a well-earned gin.  This is the "after" photo:

We were both happy with the end result and my friend can now access her washing machine much more easily, which is an added bonus. I suppose I should really tackle our own garage now....