The University of Arizona is bringing back its dorm move-out rummage sale for the first time since 2018, turning student castoffs into a two-weekend event that starts May 16 and 17. The four-day sale will return May 23 and 24 at ACE Recycling in Tucson, where prices on the first day of each weekend will be set at pennies on the dollar before everything becomes free the next day.
The sale runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both weekends at 9110 S. Eisenhower Road, south of the airport near South Nogales Highway and Aerospace Parkway. Shoppers are being asked to bring large, durable bags to carry what they buy, with the first weekend focused on clothing, accessories and small household items left behind by students and the second weekend centered on furniture from nearly 600 dorm rooms being replaced by the UA.
Money from the rummage sale will go to 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 event gives the community a chance to support the university, its students and its sustainability goals at the same time. She said items can avoid ending up in landfills as junk if they are given a new life in someone else’s home.
The effort began May 6, after the last day of classes, when students started moving out and crews began collecting items for the sale. That collection is scheduled to continue until May 15, when the dorms close for the summer, and the Office of Government & Community Relations is also working with nearby off-campus apartments to gather unwanted student items.
The sale sits at the intersection of campus turnover and a practical cleanup problem. It is meant to keep usable goods out of the trash stream while feeding a fund that helps students who need rent support the most. Burchell said the university starts talking to students about recycling in the fall when they move in and keeps the conversation going about energy and water reduction, with the goal of carrying those habits into off-campus life and the reality of paying their own bills.
