Remakery Big Clear-Out: please help!

[hannah lewis]

Hi all,

Some of you are already aware of this, but just so everyone knows, Lambeth Living have confirmed that their contractors will require access to Block 2 to begin jet-washing it on Monday 11th November. If anything is left in the space then we risk being charged for its removal.

That means EVERYTHING must be out of Block 2 by the end of next week.

Almost all non-Remakery stuff is now out of Block 2 (except Andy's... he knows the score... and Rashad's... he's back from Iraq and I'm on his case!)

But there is still masses of stuff that is our responsibility (mostly wood and building materials, furniture, and some random stuff like books and electricals that were left behind by Ikosi). It's mostly sorted into separate types of stuff now and the obvious rubbish has been discarded.

Good progress was made by the Co-makers last Saturday, extending the storage racks for flat wood and boards in one of the Block 1 storage units. We also already had the scaffold shelves in another unit, which have been a great step forward in storing smaller pieces and lengths of wood in a more organised way.

I've ordered another large skip, which is coming on Friday and we can keep for up to 2 weeks (or get another if needed), to accommodate what we don't want or simply can't fit into Block 1.

Pretty much everything that is left in Block 2 has a logical place to go, either:

• Into the Block 1 storage area if it's useful and good quality / condition. However we still need to build more shelves and racks in Block 1 so we can make efficient use of the space.
• Some things can be advertised on Freecycle, or Gumtree if they're worth money. This applies particularly to furniture that is not suitable for the Remakery but still functional.
• Some things can be collected in bulk by recycling charities, e.g. books, CDs and small electrical equipment (I've got contact details of some suitable organisations).
• As a last resort we'll have the skip!

So now, we basically need extra pairs of hands to get it all moved. Also if someone is up for photographing stuff and putting ads on Gumtree and Freecycle, and calling charities for collections, that would be great.

I will not be on site tomorrow (Thurs) as I'm going to this LCRN training day about opportunities for starting re-use / recycling businesses (should be good inspiration / context for the Alchemy Programme): http://resourcebusiness-eorg.eventbrite.co.uk/

So if anyone else would be willing to be around at the Remakery tomorrow daytime and oversee a group (probably including some of the prisoners / Payback crew and perhaps other volunteers) to move materials across from Block 2 into Block 1, that would be amazing. It should be pretty straightforward as the shelves and racks are already set up and by looking at what's already there you can see which sizes of wood go where. There are a couple of extra-large yellow builders' waste bags in Block 2 which can be used for the rubbish while we await the skip.

I'll be there for the social and to continue the work in the evening. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to put "Remakery Big Clear-Out" as an event on Facebook lasting from Thurs evening social through Friday and Saturday daytimes. Might make sense to include all of next week too! (though I'm only available on Mon, Weds & Fri next week so can anyone cover Tues 5th, Thurs 7th and Sat 9th?) Many hands would make lighter work in terms of getting all the wood and building materials moved. 

Please get in touch if you are available for any of that time or can help with this in any way.

Thanks very much!

Hannah

+44 (0)791 903 8778