Finals are hard.

Is packing all your stuff getting you down in the dumps? Then dump your stuff at the Dump and Run at the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright St., begins Monday, May 8. Volunteers for the annual collection will be accepting donations of anything unwanted.

The end of the academic year signals a wave of students moving out of residence halls and apartments. Students often find they have accumulated too much over the course of the year, or do not have room to store items and they end up in landfills, Rachael Dietkus, director of development for the University YMCA, said.

The event collects items from the Champaign-Urbana community that would otherwise be thrown away. The YMCA stores the donated items until August when they are sold at a garage sale of sorts.

“The past two years, we’ve had two semi-truck trailers full of stuff,” Dietkus said. “(The University) has so many international students that come here with absolutely nothing. The Dump and Run is a great way for them to furnish their apartments with couches, bookshelves, basically anything.”

Becca Guyette, program director for the University YMCA., said a wide variety of items are received every year

“We actually had someone turn in a kitchen sink,” Guyette said. “It kind of eliminated our ability to say ‘everything but the kitchen sink.'”

Guyette said the YMCA tries to keep in mind that students are generally the ones purchasing the items, so they try to keep prices low by using a price list. All potentially useable unpurchased items are donated to various charities after the sale in the fall.

The Dump and Run is not possible without help, Dietkus said. Volunteers are needed for both collections and sales, and they will receive “first dibs” on items, before they are available to the public.

Volunteers like Rachel Sauer, senior in LAS, will also be available to pickup items donators are not able to bring in, or that are too large to be transported normally.

“I like the Dump and Run because it takes in items, like household appliances, that would otherwise end up in landfills,” Sauer said. “The big stuff takes up so much space that we should try to reuse it if at all possible and that’s what the Dump and Run does.”