Kitchen chaos

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Over the years I have given away many things on Freegle and Freecycle but obviously over the last few months I've had no reason to look at either site - nowhere to put any acquisitions and the things I have around me are only the basics I need to live so nothing to donate. But idly, about six weeks ago, late at night, I thought I'd have a look. I was astounded to see an entire kitchen on offer. One that appealed to me too. The two stipulations were that it needed to be collected from the donors on the day their builder was removing it in the middle of April and that one person had to take the lot - no picking and choosing. I emailed to say that I was moving into a house without a kitchen, had a van booked for mid-April, and would love it.

The following morning I got a message saying they were taken aback by how much interest there was but that I was the first so it was mine, for collection on 12 April. The very day I had a van booked. I accepted immediately and asked my movers if they could fit it in on moving day. Yes they could. The donors asked if I wanted to visit to measure but since I was going to take it regardless I didn't see much point so they sent me a couple more pictures. I sent those  to my infinitely practical brother to check whether he thought the units could make a viable kitchen in my place and he said there were so many it was bound to work. And extremely generously and unexpectedly he said that he and his son would come and fit it for me the Sunday after it arrived. 

Three weeks ago the donors changed their date to 14 April and my removals people were unavailable but I was able to find another local firm to do the move. Not cheap but, hey, a free kitchen. 

Today it arrived, piles and greasy piles of it, base units, an extractor fan, skinny fluorescent lights, shelves, screws, worktops, hooks, legs, top units, all filling up about a third of my large kitchen-diner space. And even a built-in Neff oven among the heaps. The removers had picked up anything that might be useful. After they'd left I set about measuring and sorting units by size so I could get some idea of how to arrange them in my space. And scraping off some of the deep, revolting dust/grease mix.

Chaos, but what beautiful chaos!