Handing back the old office in Mermaid Waters

I found Clear Out by searching on my phone while standing in the middle of the mess in Mermaid Waters. Our small practice was merging with another one, and our office had to be empty by the end of the month for the landlord's make-good.

Thirty-odd desks, chairs, a boardroom table, filing cabinets, a broken photocopier, old monitors and a server rack nobody knew how to unplug.

Mermaid Waters is family-friendly canal and lake streets close to shopping centres, and getting things out isn't always simple. Straightforward suburban access all week.

I sent a couple of photos and got a call back within the hour. They gave me a rough idea on the phone but said they'd confirm a fixed price when they saw it in person.

They parked so the back of the truck lined up with the side gate, put a drop sheet down at the door and asked me to show them anything that was staying.

We had a fair bit of e-waste. They separated it all so it went to an e-waste recycler, and kept the hard drives aside for our IT contractor.

By the time I'd made them a coffee, it was nearly finished. The price didn't change, and they even took a couple of extra bits I'd forgotten about without charging more.

I'd tried to do it myself twice before. Next time I'm just ringing straight away.