A café's storeroom, finally sorted in Tugun

A friend in Tugun gave me Clear Out's number, and I sat on it for a fortnight before ringing. 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.

Tugun is a compact beach suburb near the airport with older units and duplexes, and getting things out isn't always simple. Narrow streets and shared drives suit our smaller vehicle.

When I rang, the person who answered asked a few simple questions about what it was, where it was and how to get to it, and said they could come and look that afternoon.

The crew pulled up, had a look, and told me the price straight away. No surprises, no 'we'll see how it goes'. I said yes and they got started within five minutes.

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.

What I appreciated most was that nothing was rushed and nothing was a hassle. They explained where everything was going: charity, recycling or the tip. I felt good about it.

It's a small thing, but having someone else carry it all out made a much bigger difference than I expected.