A café's storeroom, finally sorted in Broadbeach Waters

I'm in Broadbeach Waters, and I'll be honest: I put this off for far too long. I run a small homewares shop, and the back room had filled up with broken display stands, cartons and stock that wasn't going to sell.

Bent chairs, stacked crates, a rusted bain-marie and boxes of cracked crockery. The fridge was the real problem. It was about two metres tall.

Broadbeach Waters is wide canal streets with large family homes and pools, and getting things out isn't always simple. Wide driveways suit larger trucks, and we protect decorative paving.

I half expected to be put on hold, but it was the bloke who'd actually be doing the job. He asked about stairs and parking, which made me think he'd done this a few times.

Two of them turned up right on time in a tipper truck. Before they lifted anything, they walked the route from the pile to the truck and pointed out a couple of spots where they'd put down protection.

I couldn't close during the day, so they came at 6pm after trading and had it out by 7:30. They were in and out through the back lane, so no customers were disturbed.

When they were done, they swept up and walked me around to check. I paid the price we'd agreed, and that was it. The whole thing took less time than I'd spent worrying about it.

My advice to anyone in the same situation is not to wait as long as I did. The relief was worth more than the cost.