The 10th annual Rummage RAMPage is back in Ames. Located at the Ames Intermodal Facility, this eco-friendly event is put on by the City of Ames and Iowa State Office of Sustainability.
Rummage RAMPage was created when Ames saw a significant loss of usable items being thrown away due to the inconvenience of moving. Although many turn to donation outlets such as Goodwill or Overflow, these are oversaturated at this time of year. Inspired by a similar event in Iowa City, Rummage RAMPage was born.
“We wanted a community garage sale which would allow an outlet for these unneeded, but very useful items,” Merry Rankin, director of sustainability at Iowa State, said. “Then offer a subsequent opportunity to keep them out of the landfill but also get them to folks that could use them and would really benefit from them.”
When visiting the sale, you can expect to see a little bit of everything, from house plants to couches to books to tools.
Although this event was born through a collaboration between the City of Ames and Office of Sustainability, volunteers are the ones who really keep it going.
This year, Rummage RAMPage is expected to see 2,000 volunteer hours logged from various organizations around Story County.
“None of the proceeds from the event come back to the university or to the city of Ames. They all go to those organizations,” Rankin said.
A list of participating organizations can be found here.
All ages can be found at the sale, from college students to senior residents.
“When we first started this event, we were thinking, ‘This is great for all the students that are moving out and not able to take all their items with them,’ and what we’ve seen is it’s also been a very popular option for residents of Ames,” Rankin said.
Rummage RAMPage is constantly evolving to be the best for customers. When there was an increase in antique, heirloom, and collectible items, a rare and unique section was created.
Along with rare and unique, the sale is organized into different categories, making it easy to shop through. You’ll see a houseware section, a recreational section, and an outdoor furniture area.
For a sneak peek through the various sections and of the items available, videos are posted to their social media highlighting different sections before each day of the event.
8 a.m. Saturday, July 25 is opening day. You can expect a line of people waiting around the block. The sale goes all week long, finally concluding on Aug. 1 with half-price sales.
If you’re looking to donate, you can bring your items from July 24-30.
“It’s so unique, we can’t begin to try to predict what we’ll see come in,” Rankin said. “But it’s a new sales floor pretty much every day. We really encourage individuals who’ve come one day and think they’ve done the event to come back and check it out.”
For more information, see their website here.
