A GROTTON woman is piecing together people’s free time after her jigsaw idea took off.
But Cheryl Beardmore is looking for more space to prevent her home being left in bits – after being inundated with 80 of them!
And she is counting her time by, as she is making sure all of the adult puzzles have all the pieces.
Cheryl, who until recently worked at Mossley Hollins High School, came up with the idea during lockdown after finding herself with plenty of time on her hands.
But then popularity of the Let’s Piece It Together initiative has surprised her to the point where she is looking for extra space to store them.
“During lockdown, I started doing jigsaws,” said Cheryl.
“We also did a lot of caravanning and I saw it in a remote village somewhere. I thought, ‘What a good idea.’
“And when I finished with them, I thought, ‘Well, what do you do with them?’ So I just gave them to charity.
“I thought of the idea and outing everything together in July after seeing there are local libraries where you can get books out for free and setting something up on that same principle.
“I put a request out for donations and I’ve had 80. I’ve even had one sent to me through the post from Somerset!
“Now I’m looking for people to help with storage. At the moment, they’re all at my house and I’m kind of full – I’ve found every crevice. My husband’s going a bit mad!
“So if I could find a community hall I could access once a weekend, somewhere dry, that would be fabulous. I need more space.
“Helping with counting the pieces would be good too – at the moment I’m doing it all and it’s a big job.
“We do adult jigsaws only, so that’s from 200 pieces up to 1,000. They’re mainly 1,000 pieces.
I’m counting all the time.
“And you’d be surprised how many people have the guilty pleasure of jigsaws.”
Cheryl’s service – called a jigsaw exchange – is not just for people from the Saddleworth area.
She has set up a Facebook page where people interested in either donating or taking a jigsaw can approach her. It also tells you what she has, whether it is on loan or whether it is available.
“You just come and collect it, have it for as long as you want, then bring it back,” she added. “If you have one to bring, bring it and take one. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter. I also offer a delivery service for people who are either immobile, infirm or don’t drive.”
If you are interested in taking part, or if you have any space that could be used for storage, you can contact her at www.facebook.com/Lets-Piece-It-Together-Jigsaw-Exchange-108524558209062 or by calling her on 07860 575835.
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