The University of Arizona is bringing back its dorm move-out rummage sale for the first time since 2018, with a four-day sale spread over two weekends in mid- and late-May.
The sale will run May 16-17 and May 23-24 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at ACE Recycling, 9110 S. Eisenhower Road, south of the airport near South Nogales Highway and Aerospace Parkway. Items will be priced at pennies on the dollar on the first day of each weekend, then offered free the next day.
The first weekend will feature clothing, accessories and small household items left behind by students. The second weekend will shift to furniture from nearly 600 dorm rooms being replaced by the university, giving the school a way to clear out housing items without sending everything straight to the landfill.
Proceeds from the rummage sale will benefit the Dorm Assistance Award, which helps low-income and first-generation students by covering a portion of their rent for a year. Jill Burchell said the sale gives the community a way to support the university, its students, sustainability goals and the local environment.
Student move-out started May 6, after the last day of classes, and will continue through May 15, when dorms are scheduled to close for the summer. That timing matters because the sale is tied directly to what students leave behind and to the campus effort to collect unwanted items before the buildings shut down.
The Office of Government & Community Relations is also working with nearby off-campus apartments to gather unwanted student items. Burchell said the university starts sustainability education when students arrive in the fall and keeps working with them on recycling, energy reduction and water conservation. Once they move out and begin paying their own bills, she said, the goal is to make sure they know how to conserve.
The sale is more than a cleanup. It is a rare reuse effort for the university, a fundraiser for student housing aid and a practical test of whether the campus can turn move-out waste into support for students and the environment at the same time.
