Move Out Weekend in Isla Vista Means Tons of Leftover Trash & Extra Items
John Palminteri
ISLA VISTA, Calif. (KEYT) – With the end of the UC Santa Barbara school year, the Isla Vista community nearby is clearing out.
Thousands of students who are residents in the area are packing up their belongings, stuffing their vehicles and filling up U-Haul trucks. Parents have arrived to help with the geometric calculations to make it all fit where it is supposed to go.
What can’t be moved is donated or left on the curbside. Some of the items are being collected for an upcoming community sale on June 19th and 20th. It is organized by the Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) this year and not with the same structure that took place in the past at the Embarcadero Hall parking lot. That parking lot sale which was known as the GIVE sale will not be taking place, due to some space issues. Instead the 2026 sale will be in the IVCSD parking lot next to the Community Center.
Items arriving include desks, chairs, kitchen items, small appliances, clothing and beds. Not all will be sold, some will be immediately donated.
The goal is to keep items from the landfill. the IVCSD is working in coordination on some aspects of the donation center and sale with partnership help from UCSB. Viviana Marsano is the UCSB Assistant Dean of Student Engagement & Leadership. She said, “everything will have a purpose and everything will have a home.” They do not plan to send anything to the landfill if possible. “We’re still receiving everything that we used to receive in the past but in this case the sale will only be furniture, everything else goes to Goodwill so nothing nothing goes to the landfill.”
The move out is intense with an estimated 10-15,000 residents leaving the area after the school year, and for seniors they may have several years of belongings to deal with.
Already some discarded items are on the streets or near the dumpster bins.
Marborg has added additional trucks and pickups to handle this waste flow and clean the area as fast as possible.
A graduate student, Kaia Emery is heading north and said, “we’ve tried to donate a lot of stuff it is unfortunately not possible with everything.”
Bella Wagner brought in some of her belongings to move forward with the sale or donation plan. “This I think is way more accessible but also hopefully has a greater chance of (items) going to someone else in the community.”
One thing that won’t be sold are mattresses and bed springs and those that are stacked up outside of the community center. They will be picked up by a special truck from Marborg .
. Some residents have been selling on line in addition to donating.
Emery said, “yea clothing furniture and kitchen items…just really anything. I sold on facebook marketplace too like a fridge and a table and all that.”
When you see what’s out there, this process can get emotional. Wagner said, “I saw this beautiful little table the other day and I watched the garbage truck take it and it got dumped in and I went ooooh I can’t take it and that’s so sad.”
Unsold items will get a second chance.
Marsano said, “they will have a sale, a move in sale in September also, mainly furniture, mini fridges, no clothes when the students come back. “
As part of the move out process, good food will go to a good cause.
“100 percent of the food that is not expired and closed goes to the Associated Students food bank they already came and they took quite a few bins.,”said Marsano.
The sale is free to attnd. It will be Friday from noon until 8 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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