What connects a tyre, the front bumper of a car, and a bed frame?

No, they’re not the last items to be picked up by our removals team. And they’re not the contents of one of our storage units either. These were in fact just some of the items recently found by teams from House and Carriage, and our sister company MyStore Self Storage , on a large-scale litter-pick in the Cotswolds town of Charlbury.

Employees from both businesses – including their two directors – could be seen last month wielding pick-up sticks, dressed in hi-vis clothing and carrying biodegradable bin bags. They took to the West Oxfordshire town – home of House and Carriage – to clean up the streets. The teams returned with enough rubbish to fill a skip.

Cleaning up for good

Our teams were proud to have taken part in this initiative. As businesses, both House and Carriage and MyStore Self Storage exist to help people. We have strong organisational values that put people first. This massive tidy-up was an innovative way of doing something a little different from the usual in order to live up to those values.

By doing this, the volunteers hope to set an example to others too. And as they picked up the rubbish, they were delighted to be thanked in person not just by residents, but also by some of our current clients.

Both organisations are now planning more days to go litter-picking – so that locals will be able to enjoy the sights and sounds of the season, without litter destroying West Oxfordshire’s natural beauty. It might even become an annual event…

It’s not just the litter-pick that we’re proud of. We embed sustainability and environmental consideration into other parts of our businesses too.

As a new business that sells a variety of packaging, for instance, MyStore Self Storage is working hard to become more efficient and reduce its carbon footprint. In fact all of its products can be reused or recycled, and the foam void fill that is used even breaks down into compost!

Our spring clean in numbers:

2: the number of businesses that took part – House and Carriage and our sister company, MyStore Self Storage

4: the number of teams from the companies that volunteered to lend a hand

6: the number of hours the teams spent litter-picking around Charlbury

10: the number of miles of road that the teams cleaned up

120: the number of rubbish bags the teams managed to fill with bottles, cans, wrappers – and even a bed frame

1:area of outstanding natural beauty restored to how it should be – and perhaps more to come!