When Junji Toshima was performing a routine sweep of the dorms a few years ago after students had moved out of their rooms, he found a box of scorpions. But he said goldfish are a more common find during the room checks.
In the 17 years Toshima, the access control manager of on-campus housing, has been on the job, he said he has seen the usual clothing or textbook mistakenly left behind by residents, but it is the more unusual items that make him laugh.
Toshima said students in a hurry to pack up their belongings and beat the checkout deadline often leave things behind in their dorm rooms.
“It’s kind of unbelievable. People will sometimes leave their entire wardrobe,” he said. He added that items found in dorm rooms are kept for 90 days before the university hands them over to university police to keep in their lost and found.
“We try to identify and contact owners for items that have value,” Toshima said.
But for students who are not interested in getting their items back and want to relieve themselves of their excess belongings, the Office of Residential Life created a project to get those items to local thrift stores, said Kirk White, resident director for Hitch Suites and the Hilgard Houses.
ORL and the Community Partnerships Committee organized the Clothes Out Project, which helps locate local groups to which the abandoned clothing can be donated.
For instance, clothes are donated to Out of the Closet, a chain of thrift stores in California.
White added that the store provides the university with bins where students can donate their clothes.
“The biggest problem we face every year is that some students vandalized the bins by putting in perishable items such as bananas, and as soon as they do that the clothes are contaminated,” White said, adding that those items can no longer be donated.
The project is also trying to find a place to donate items other than clothing and is currently in talks to donate bulkier items such as furniture to the Salvation Army, a social service organization.
White added that thrift stores and charity groups are not the only ones that benefit from the donations ““ the university benefits as well because it establishes a relationship with the community, he said.
Students are also looking for places to store their extra belongings because they do not want to throw anything away.
Willis Chan, a first-year mathematics student, said he took a good portion of his belongings home when he flew back during Memorial Day weekend. As for his bulkier items such as his mini-fridge Chan said he is storing them at a friend’s apartment over the summer to avoid paying for storage.
Anisha Adusumilli, a second-year undeclared student who lives out of state, said she has more stuff than most in-state students because she cannot go home often, but she stores her belongings with extended family in San Diego so she does not have to worry about the extra things she accumulates over the year.
Students who do not have relatives or friends to turn to for storage may opt to rent storage space while they are away for the summer.
This year, Public Storage Pick Up and Delivery set up a pilot program with the university that allows students to store belongings with the company over the summer, said Adrian Sinay, a senior general manager for the company.
Sinay said that if the program goes smoothly this summer, additional pick-up locations other than in the De Neve Quad will be set up around the dorms.
“We haven’t done this at any other university, but if it works we’ll probably roll this out at other universities,” he said.
Matt Ball, a first-year computer science and engineering student from Georgia, said he is looking to rent storage space with friends.
Ball said he probably will not use the storage UCLA set up because he believes he can get more storage space at a better value elsewhere.