The shed that ate the backyard in Mermaid Beach
Chloe Carter · Shed Cleanout · Mermaid Beach
The story
I'm in Mermaid Beach, and I'll be honest: I put this off for far too long. We bought an older place in the hinterland with a big steel shed out the back. The previous owner left it 'as is', which turned out to mean full.
There were coffee tins full of screws, three broken lawnmowers, car parts, sheets of tin, old timber, and a workbench that weighed more than my car.
Mermaid Beach is beachfront cottages, duplexes and knock-down-rebuild sites, and getting things out isn't always simple. Narrow lanes off the Gold Coast Highway need careful truck placement.
They offered a time the next morning. I asked if they needed me to move anything to the kerb first, and they said no, they'd take it from where it was.
They arrived a few minutes early, introduced themselves and did a quick walk-around. The price they gave me was a bit under what I'd budgeted, which was a pleasant surprise.
There were a couple of old drums they wouldn't take because they couldn't tell what was in them. They told us exactly who to call for that. Fair enough, really.
The space is unrecognisable. I keep walking past it just to look. I'd use them again without thinking about it, and I've already passed the number on to my sister.
If I'm honest, the hardest part was deciding to do it. Once that was done, it was easy.