r/Anticonsumption • u/NickMatocho • May 10 '26
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle College move out day!
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u/arson_lensby May 10 '26
When my friend said they never had to buy furniture new as a kid because they’d just go to where the university accommodation was at the end of term I thought they were at least exaggerating a little about what got left behind- Nope, looks like I know where I’m getting my stuff from when I move out.
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u/-slaps-username- May 10 '26
i’ve always said the best time to move is april/may. garbage pick from college dorms, garage sale season is starting up, “spring cleaning”, then hit fb marketplace, thrift stores, and antique stores to fill in the gaps.
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u/440_Hz May 10 '26
I’ve gotten a lot of really nice stuff from the period of time I lived on a college campus. A lot of clothes I still wear regularly, genuinely useful items like kitchen tools and appliances, etc.
Though what helped is that people usually stacked their stuff nicely on the ground when they moved out, OP’s photo looks like chaos and impossible to root through (especially the stuff thrown directly into the dumpster).
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u/geochemfem May 10 '26
Yeah we had a free table/ area, so we could load up after the rich kids left.
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u/Aggressive_Spread296 May 12 '26
I used to raid the books people threw out at the end of the year. Those textbooks were expensive
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u/Humboldt-Honey May 10 '26
Got a perfectly good futon when I was broke thanks to hippie Christmas
We didn’t have a vehicle so me and my roommate carried it two blocks
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u/SpinningBetweenStars May 10 '26
Oh man, I was so excited that Hippie Christmas had become a well-known term until I saw your username 🤣
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May 10 '26
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u/PMMEYOURGUCCIFLOPS May 10 '26
Bed fucking bugs. I have PTSD from my experience with those fuckers!
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u/likwidkool May 10 '26
Holy shit me too. We threw out almost everything. My wife and I can’t see a bed bug shaped bug without freaking out.
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u/Distinct-Pack-1567 May 11 '26
I haven't dealt with them for well over a decade, but in certain heat conditions old bites flare up and I freak out thinking the demon bugs are back. Summer is coming, so I am mentally preparing for it again. Woo
As Robert Muldoon once said:
They should all be destroyed
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u/Soft-Principle1455 May 11 '26
Hence why states like North Carolina require sterilization of box springs and mattresses for donation/sale.
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u/alexthealex May 11 '26
We would take bikes. Kids would move out of dorms and we, as locals, would walk through campus and see the bikes get stickered for removal. After they were stickered and the students were gone, it was a free-for-all to come in with bolt cutters and get new bikes the school was going to dumpster anyway.
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u/PolaNimuS May 11 '26
Damn, a college town with enough bikes to go around is a dream. I had one stolen and another one taken/impounded (not sure what happened, I think the rack was getting replaced or something).
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u/Muted_Substance2156 May 10 '26
My friends and I would go dumpster diving every move out season and it’s what furnished my first apartment as an adult. We called it “shopping.”
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u/Quote16 May 10 '26
jeez that's rough. I hate that "give college kids the cheapest most disposable shit imaginable because it's temporary" is such a deeply ingrained part of our culture. unbelievably wasteful
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u/Big-Constant-7289 May 10 '26
I had friends who would dumpster dive move out day at the local college and fix/refinish/resell the stuff the kids left.
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u/Five0clocksomewhere May 10 '26
That’s all I ever do! Now I’m in a new city and the kids are all weirdly tight-lipped / no one talks about where all the shits gonna be and I’m missing out…. :(
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u/Small-Palpitation310 May 11 '26
That’s even stupider. Why would they xare
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u/Five0clocksomewhere May 11 '26
I’m my previous town, NIMBYs got really weird about it. All the trash everywhere and dumpsters overflowing was fine, but people pulling up in their cars/trucks and salvaging stuff was unacceptable. A lot of the time, if you just showed the cop that you were actually cleaning up the mess they would leave you alone which was cool. One time I was picking up and bagging the literal shit all over the ground, and sorting out the nice clothes / unexpired food and putting it in boxes and a cop thanked me. It’s a very strange ritual that happens when the college kids leave, it’s like an ecosystem haha
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u/Worthyness May 10 '26
Whenever I needed something for the apartment, I would just go to the basement. people threw out some really useful stuff. Found a dish rack, brand new table, an (old) TV, several different shot glasses, some textbooks I needed for the next year. Great finds really. If you ever need to furnish anything on the cheap, that's the time to do it
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u/Feeling_Wishbone_864 May 10 '26
Partially, but also a lot of people go to school so far away from home that it just isn’t practical to transport things when they’re done with school.
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u/ladedadedadedade May 10 '26
Also you typically have 24 hours max to vacate after your last final. When I was in college I definitely got rid of more than I should have because I was in a rush to finish packing get out and had no time to sell or make a trip to the thrift to donate because I was studying
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u/Feeling_Wishbone_864 May 10 '26
Oof! I definitely remember this. Disposing of my stuff was the least of my worries in those final days each year.
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u/ladedadedadedade May 10 '26 edited May 11 '26
My school did have bins to donate (I found a Dyson vacuum there that I still have lol) but there’s a lot that you couldn’t donate like bed stuff or that was honestly too big to donate like the stuff you see pictured here.
ETA: also re the bedding: I also know from experience a lot of kids have early flights out the morning after their last final- after packing everything or sending boxes off to summer storage and the last thing they’re thinking about at 5 am before heading to the airport is sustainably getting rid of a grimy set of sheets and mattress pad.
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u/Feeling_Wishbone_864 May 10 '26
IIRC, we had bins for things like lamps, plastic drawers, desk organizers but no mattress pads or bean bags (like you described). This photo just looks like pure chaos. I know Howard does have options so this is probably just a reflection of students not taking advantage.
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u/Quote16 May 10 '26
yeah that's fair. I guess I just wish there were better infrastructure to support this sort of thing. either school-provided furniture or some kind of marketplace where people can easily buy and sell this stuff once it's done in the dorm
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u/Feeling_Wishbone_864 May 10 '26
Many schools do! My undergrad had a whole team of people that helped sort stuff to be saved and stored for incoming students for the next year. My grad school had storage you could drop stuff off at and they sold it to the next group. Currently working on my PhD and that university has something set up too. However, as someone else pointed out, the short move-out window at an already chaotic time (finals) makes it hard to find the time to do things better for some students. My niece is a freshman in college right now without a car, so donating to a thrift store isn’t a realistic option for her and I’m sure many others.
But yeah, seeing this is definitely painful.
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u/Computers_and_cats May 10 '26
I'm always surprised local charities or someone doesn't organize to sort and collect the good stuff.
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u/therealwhoaman May 10 '26
I'd imagine there are some, but still not enough to handle all of this.
But I'm now going to look up for my area and see if I can help volunteer sifting through stuff or something
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u/Hshshhfhfjjfb May 10 '26
My college put out donation bins for goodwill (not the best option, but that’s another post), but it is well-known they just throw out a majority of the items from move out because they are just so overwhelmed with stuff
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u/dancesinpublic May 10 '26
We used to call this hippie Christmas when I went to U of O in Eugene - got some solid stuff in the years I celebrated! TVs, mini fridges, clothes, just so much stuff.
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u/SilverDubloon May 10 '26
Colleges should partner with non-profits to collect items on moving day. Those items could at least go to people in need.
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u/agoldgold May 11 '26
Plenty do. And plenty of people just walk up and take what they want. There's still far more left from move-out than any organization but the garbage removal companies can handle, and sometimes even that's at capacity.
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u/West_Fun3247 May 11 '26
I lived in a college town. There was this old timer who would take as much as he could to his garage. Come fall semester, he'd throw a garage sale. Dirt cheap, but he'd still find it worthwhile to do it every year.
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u/NoBoard3342 May 10 '26
You think that’s bad, I live next to a campus that has a lot of really wealthy international student who’s parents will buy them luxury cars, when they graduate they just leave them parked in an alleyways for weeks until the council tows and gets rid of them.
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u/therealwhoaman May 10 '26
Seriously??? Now that's wild.
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u/Soft-Principle1455 May 11 '26
At least they are sold at police auction. Wonder what those look like in areas like that…
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u/chrisinator9393 May 10 '26
I work at a college. I haven't bought laundry soap in 15 years. I just use all the left overs from the college kids. It's a nice little side benefit.
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u/yung_funyun May 10 '26
Nah son, free shit. Is this Howard?
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u/LastBite_30 May 10 '26
They definitely look like the towers at Howard.
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u/thatgirlindc May 10 '26
Definitely the towers!!! First thing I thought when I saw this pic. I lived there for a year.
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u/bagelundercouch May 10 '26
Omg it is! I swear it and the billion other universities nearby should have some sort of deal with local housing support groups or food banks or something, or give it to incoming students. Ridiculous waste.
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u/WildOkra9571 May 10 '26
Our local college has Dump 'n Run stations where students can leave items they don't want to take with them. Over the summer, volunteers sort and organize everything, and then in the fall they have a big sale and donate the proceeds to a local charity. Everybody wins.
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u/HipsterBikePolice May 10 '26
I had a friend who would haul out unwanted mini fridges in the spring and the sell them to kids moving in in the fall. He made a killing lol
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u/Narwhalsareunicorn May 10 '26
There was a donate (to charity) don't ditch (trash) program when I was a student. Some students fly instead of drive. Many students do not have cars or big enough cars. The frustrating reality is that it is often more practical to discard/give away items than transport.
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u/Lazy-Field-1116 May 10 '26
Is this normal all across the US?
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u/Blunderhorse May 10 '26
Yup, most college semesters schedule their final move out day to be a day or two after the high stress final exam period and fine students for late move out or leaving housing in a state that requires extensive cleaning inside. Very few offer real logistical support, so anything that doesn’t fit in your family’s vehicle(s) requires driving to a storage unit multiple times in heavy traffic, or hauling the stuff to a dumpster that’s probably closer to the dorm than the parking lot.
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u/WillowTreez8901 May 10 '26
I think this is more common in high income areas. I could barely buy anything in college as I was trying to reduce my debt and brought everything back with me when I moved out. We did not have these massive piles where I went to school.
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u/Keallei May 11 '26
It’s quite sad and depressing, isn’t it? I didn’t know it was a thing until I lived in a dorm. There was a strict “no leaving your belongings in the common area hoping someone will want it and take it” policy. It was loosely followed. I scored a chair, coffee mug, clothes hangers, and a shelf one day. All things I needed. It was disappointing to see so much stuff go in the dumpster.
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u/KDLG2000 May 10 '26
University of Kentucky has a group that takes good stuff and puts it in a store for free for students. Amazing idea
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u/leafymans May 10 '26
My school heavily promotes our “move out project” and I still see way too much of this crap
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u/Blunderhorse May 10 '26
Does the “move out project” actually provide meaningful and affordable logistical support for students to get more time after exams to properly move and store stuff over the summer? Or is just a series of posters around campus to guilt people over how much stuff they throw away in the day or two between their last exam and their move-out deadline?
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u/LongjumpingJaguar308 May 10 '26
Oh dang, forgot about that, wonder if its too late to go scavenge for a mini fridge so I can make an at home fizzy water fridge.
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u/GtMaxymania65 May 10 '26
I am a custodian at my university and was doing this today… so many usable housewares that end up getting tossed because nobody wants to put them in the donations pile. Even the donations end up looking like mounds of crap.
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u/Ok-Baby-8051 May 10 '26
I used to work for a company called Valet Waste that would pick up trash door to door at apartment complexes. The complexes I picked up at were primarily college students and this happened all the time. The amount of stuff I’ve brought home is insane! My boss used to take a ton of stuff home to keep in her garage, and when she got enough “products” she’d have a yard sale and make like $500-$600 at a time
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u/elebrin May 11 '26
You have to remember, these young adults often have on the order of hours to get out of their living space with all their stuff in a car or (sometimes) into luggage and onto a plane.
I remember people getting done with exams at 5pm, eating ramen, packing into a car until 8pm so they could drive until 3am to get to their apartment so they could start work the next day at 8am. My story really isn't all college students and it's an extreme example but this is what we expect of them sometimes.
A lot of this stuff was second or thirdhand when they got it anyways. I used to be building manager for an apartment building for college students, it was all "prefurnished" but the furnishings were really not in good condition and were mostly junk. It all worked, but most of it was damaged or dinged up or scratched to hell, the springs were dead in the couches and chairs, and... well, nothing was undamaged, we'll say.
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u/JennHatesYou May 10 '26
People in Santa Barbara patrol the streets of IV at move out in pick up trucks. Rich kids use their shit for a year and dump it, rebuy everything the next year. Families can make off with a full house of almost new furniture. It’s crazy.
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u/GothicaSweetHeart May 10 '26
All that good furniture going to waste makes me sick. Like at least donate it
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u/Rough_Community_1439 May 11 '26
Sounds like a good way to get free stuff. I hear they throw out electronics, desks and so much more to justify dumpsterdiving.
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u/slowasaspeedingsloth May 10 '26
Holy crap. This is worse than I ever could have imagined. Compounded across all the colleges... just terrible.
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u/skyelarkine May 10 '26
When I lived by Columbia university in NYC I paid off one of my student loans flipping furniture- I’d buy or get for free all the ikea / target furniture and appliances I could get my hands on in May fix them up if needed then sell them back to the new students moving in as they trickled in in August. Our living room always looked weird in the summer but we didn’t hang out in there anyways bc no AC 😅.
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u/East_Audience_6634 May 11 '26
During college move out, I’d go around collecting the textbooks that were being thrown out and then sold what I could back to the used bookstore for some decent money.
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u/lariabeth May 11 '26
Here is Omaha, items from dorms are donated to a nonprofit that helps immigrants who need furniture and household items
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u/sunsetsillybet May 11 '26
It’s so sad that with all this education, our society still hasn’t learned any values or efficient systems to have alternative ways to deal with it all.
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u/sasquatch_melee May 10 '26
Amazes me universities don't partner with local charities and thrift stores on these dates. Would greatly reduce what goes to the landfill.
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u/ASentientRailgun May 11 '26
I grew up as a townie, this is free shit day. Most of my furniture as a teen came from picking through these piles. Got some shockingly expensive stuff doing it.
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u/superredditor6789 May 11 '26
It was like this more than 20 years ago at my college. There were locals trash picking every dorm on campus, probably to see stuff like mini fridges to college students.
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u/JazzFan1998 May 11 '26
The local neighbors consider it Christmas in May around a nearby university.
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u/lostinanalley May 11 '26
I had a coworker who would round up all the mini fridges being thrown out at the end of the year, clean them up, store them for the summer, and then sell them to incoming students at the start of fall.
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u/reichsmouth May 11 '26
Worked part time for a year in facilities management while at uni, stayed close w the guys I worked with and always got a ton of cool free stuff every move in/out
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u/Sundew3369 May 11 '26
I used to furnish my home when it was move out month. Some of the coolest old antique couches and tables.
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u/mkla15 May 11 '26
I live by a major university and they used to collect this stuff and host a huge garage sale. Best place to buy a bike, they were always 5 bucks! They also always had a million winter coats. I bought the best pair of jeans I’ve ever owned at that sale. They had been professionally tailored and fit me like a glove, they were amazing. Unfortunately the university sent all the students home early in 2020 so they didn’t do the sale and then they never started it up again. I know they make a point to donate the bikes to a local bike charity but I don’t know what happens to everything else.
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u/BigFitMama May 11 '26
This is how poor students survive and dive - like me back then flipping, selling tossed textbooks, and stocking up so I didn't have to buy anything for the next ten months.
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u/Siddakid0812 May 11 '26
One of my greatest prides from college is that I never did this. My parents knew what a struggle it was for me to move in freshman year and bought me a lot of stuff, but I moved that stuff to and from home for every year. Some of it has since broken, expired, or otherwise been justifiably retired, but I still have my laundry hamper and a ton of other things that were purchased for me almost a half decade ago.
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u/planes_on_a_snake May 11 '26
There is an entire second hand industry entirely dedicated to the college student market. They pick the nearest student resident dormitories and scour the disposal sites at the end of every semester. Found mini fridges, cutlery, tables, and various electronics that were all in working condition but thrown away by students.
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u/Markus_314 May 11 '26
I just moved out of my dorm a few days ago. My college has donation bins in each dorm and they are very adamant that we don’t take anything from them because they’re giving it to charity. These always get filled to the brim each year. I recently found out that they actually just take all of it to Goodwill, in which Goodwill throws most of it away. The reason they don’t want us taking stuff is because the more they “donate” the bigger the tax write-off they get. So I took as many of the clothes as I could and I’m taking them to consignment shops.
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u/Klutzy_Cat1374 May 11 '26
I worked in student housing. The worst thing you can do is reuse furniture off the street. You'll spread bedbugs everywhere. The remediation is complicated as hell. You'll spread it to your friend's place while we treated your unit. This will be an unpopular opinion and I'll take the downvotes.
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u/tortellinipigletini May 11 '26
I realise how peoples perspectives and behaviours can differ so vastly depending on their upbringing and values. because I literally CANNOT conceive of putting perfectly useable furniture out on the street like that. If I have something I don't use or I'm moving, my mind jumps to ebay, charity shop, ask around if anyone wants. If no joy I'll take with me. Throwing away is when it does not work anymore.
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u/Life_Temperature795 May 11 '26
If there's one thing college students tend to have in abundance, it's the ability to spend money without realizing what it's costing them.
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u/abbie1906 May 11 '26
Yuck. Is this an American thing? I went to uni in the UK and this was not a thing, at least not in the city I went to uni in…
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u/HomeboddE May 11 '26
Our college has a church that accepts donations at the end of the school year and each year freshmen fill their dorms with inexpensive hand me downs
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u/Ok-Boysenberry-719 May 11 '26
My husband found a 2 year old laptop that he used for another 6 years hunting through piles like this after move out day.
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u/tapelamp May 11 '26
My college would collect everything and then sell it discounted for the incoming students next semester
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u/JacksMicroplastics May 10 '26
Boston is notorious for this given the above average number of colleges and universities in the area -- "Allston Christmas".
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u/RecklessCreature May 10 '26
This pisses me off so much! Every year. Sometimes more than once a year at every school you will see this.
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u/Antgont May 11 '26
“The Sustainable Bag” is hanging from the top of the right dumpster if you zoom in. Pretty ironic
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u/TheNanoFishGuy May 11 '26
Seems like a rich kid problem. Start a company where you charge them to clean out their dorms, and then you can donate all their stuff before it ends up in the trash.
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u/Wilhelm-Edrasill May 11 '26
The private universities - all do this. They bring in several giant dumspters - and the students fill them all up - then the next year , people have 7 billions amazon prime deliveries to get the new shit in.
It always leaves a bitter taste watching it.
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u/ohoneup May 11 '26
Howard University dormitories in Washington DC. Some of the most wealthy students in the nation attend this college.
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u/TheGreatNico May 11 '26
Made a lot of money on my university's move-out week after I had to drop out. Rich international students tossing all sorts of shit. Helped tide me over until I found a job.
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u/WinterMedical May 11 '26
My son just scored a sweet like new Bissel vacuum from one of these piles.
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u/Straight_Ad_6885 May 11 '26
OH BOY! A very specific special interest of mine! 🦝♻️
I helped start a move-out collection move-in sale program on our campus to help deal with this then went on to work for a nonprofit that advises and supports initiatives like this on campuses across the country. PLAN - Post-landfill Action Network, was, and I'm sure still is, such an amazing and passionate bunch of folks. If you are a student, staff, or faculty member at a university and you are interested in starting something like a move-out collection + move-in sale, free store, composting program etc etc. at your school thenI highly recommend getting in touch with them so they can hook you up with best practices from across the country!
The program at my alum just had its 11th year and it continues to employ students full-time, part-time, and on stipend who manage and operate the program 😭🥲
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u/Gold-Kaleidoscope537 May 11 '26
I used to drive around grabbing it all and reselling it. But now ive moved.
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u/Extension-Peanut2847 May 11 '26
I snagged a full length mirror during move out that I still use. 10 years after graduation.
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u/thinkB4WeSpeak May 11 '26
Wild because you would think that college kids would be the forefront of living more sustainable and climate goals compared to your average person.
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u/silverheart-nine May 11 '26
Reminds me of spring "harvest season" in the dumpers on my college campus. So many perfectly good things thrown out... I wasn't the only one patrolling the bins though, so at least a little of it ended up salvaged.
My mother was somewhat skeptical of her little dumpster jumpster I think, until I asked her to help me sell online some textbooks I pulled out lol. $100 on at least one of those things...
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u/Present_Estimate_131 May 11 '26
If you think this is impressive, you should see what gets tossed at the rich schools. I grew up right between TCU and SMU
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u/glitterandchai May 11 '26
This reminded me of the area I used to live, the houseless folks called dorm move out day "hobo christmas" .
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u/heptyne May 11 '26
I learned in college there is a whole separate class of people who would effectively dump their whole room on summer move out. It was decent for us 'poors' who would take their unneeded items. I grew up in the house where you took care of your items, because that was all you got. Shoes would have to be completely blown out before new ones were purchased, as an example. I thought the microwave I got for college would last 4 years, but I upgraded it twice from that class of people. The worst part is that class of people has zero home training. Like they didn't clean the microwave all year and just kept using it, caked on old food and all.
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u/celticchrys May 11 '26
My university has a gigantic rummage sale for charity every year after move-out day. They should all do this. It's a great success and massive amounts of usable items get used instead of trashed.
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u/AlfalfaLive3302 May 11 '26
We need to make it illegal for laundry bins and trash bins to be made out of plastic.
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u/Tiarella_Cygnet May 11 '26
Yeah, when I lived in a small University town, this was Hippie Christmas. I still have items that I picked up brand new from what was left behind by the students. Many of the students were wealthy foreign exchange, from the Middle East or Asia. My friend once found a brand new external hard drive, I found a brand new noise-cancelling headset, and countless kitchen appliances and furniture items. I literally furnished my apartment with stuff that was discarded. Good times....
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u/shinycaterpi May 11 '26
I’m seeing this at my school rn, so many desks and shelves and other perfectly good furniture and appliances in the dumpster. I just don’t get it, my school is within walking distance to a goodwill donation center too so there’s no reason to not take it there
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u/TheBurritoW1zard May 11 '26
I was moving my sister out and the amount she had bundled up for trash I thought was already insane, then I saw the rented dumpster in the lot outside of the dorms… The perfectly usable stuff in there just absolutely deflated me :/ The next year it was my turn, and I made damn well I gave away or sold as much of my stuff as I could (or take home with me).
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u/badAbabe May 11 '26
I live in a college town and end of semester always brings out the best dumpster finds. I usually can wipe something down and sell it for a too-good-to-be-true price. They get a great deal. It doesnt go to the landfill. I make a little cash and it sells quickly. Win. Win. Win. Win.
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u/einat162 May 11 '26
I know it's the season, because my fav dumpster diving channels have been uploading those dives starting a week ago.
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u/Valuable_Anywhere772 May 11 '26
I remember at WSU during graduation season, I'd hit the dorm dumpsters. People throw out perfectly good shit.
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u/orcusgrasshopperfog May 11 '26
Probably enough DNA in those mattresses to kick off a new tech startup.
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u/aakaase May 11 '26
Those "dorm mirrors", the tall skinny rectangular ones, have to be the most thrown-out thing ever. I call them "landfill mirrors". Theres HUNDREDS of them for sale at the beginning of the school year at places like Target and Walmart.
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u/AcceptableHorror705 May 10 '26
Seems like it would be a great idea for the campus to have a free store where at end of term students can drop things off and beginning of term students can grab what they need. This is so wasteful.