Donate. Volunteer. Come to the Sale!

As part of Bates’ efforts to reduce campus waste and encourage the reuse of materials when our students move out, the College organizes an annual "CLEAN SWEEP" event. CLEAN SWEEP is essentially a huge tag sale populated by items the students leave behind when they move out, and staffed by volunteer organizations such as yours who then benefit from the proceeds.

About the Sale

Bates College’s annual CLEAN SWEEP sale is held on the third Saturday in June from 8:00am to 5:00pm in the Underhill Arena located at 145 Russell Street.

Every item including furniture, appliances, electronics, rugs, clothes, kitchenware, and much more will be sold at super low prices.

The sale is held as part of Bates’ commitment to environmental stewardship. Its primary purpose is to promote reuse. We strongly encourage you to minimize the amount of stuff you throw away. The second primary purpose of Clean Sweep is to work together with the community. Reuse works best when more people are involved. Communities work best when more people are involved. Proceeds from the sale will be donated to local non-profit organizations who participate in the effort.

Donation

As you move out, or are doing some spring cleaning, please donate any unwanted items to Clean Sweep. Please make sure all items are in clean, working condition.

We are collecting items to sell at the sale from May 23rd to June 14th. You may donate by emailing Julie Rosenbach at jrosenba@bates.edu or calling 786-8367.

Volunteering

Bates has been working with community organizations in the Lewiston-Auburn area for the past six years and these partnerships have proven critical to the success of the effort. If you are a local non-profit organization and are interested in joining the effort please click here for more information.

2007 Sale Results

In 2007, we raised over $17,600. More than 130 volunteers from eighteen organizations collected, organized, cleaned, priced, and sold items for the sale. The line started at 5:30am and by the time the doors opened at 8:00am, one line stretched out to Central Ave and another had to be formed towards the parking lot.

We had around 30 microwaves, as many mini fridges, furniture, lamps, electronics, clothes, shoes, toys, sporting goods, books, household items, futons, rugs, etc. As always, there were tons of crutches! This year there were also tables sets, trunks, and a lot of mattress/box spring sets.

We sold around 97% of the stuff, donated the other 3%, and at the end had only around a pick up truck full of items that went to trash. So, it was a great success! The volunteers did a great job!!