Furniture amnesty day July 30 in City Park

MANHATAN —This year’s Furniture Amnesty Day (FAD) will take place on Friday, July 30 starting at 8:00 a.m. in City Park. FAD is a community event that gives people the opportunity to donate or pick up used furniture at no cost.

Anyone can participate. There are no income requirements or forms to fill out in order to choose from the donated items. Registration for furniture shopping begins at City Park starting at 8:00 a.m. on the day of the event.

Free shopping will be scheduled in 15-minute timeslots from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Participants can return to the park at their scheduled time and take home up to five furniture items at no cost. Items in a set, such as a table and chairs, will only count as one item. No additional paperwork is needed. Furniture will continue to be gathered and dropped off throughout the day, so there will always be a fresh selection of goods. Please note, shoppers need to be able to haul away the furniture they select. Delivery service is not available.

“August is the most popular month for people in Manhattan to move,” said Assistant Chief Ryan Courtright. “We used to see a lot of furniture abandoned at the curb every August. Since refuse companies don’t pick up those large items, we ended up issuing a lot of code violations and furniture just sat and rotted. Furniture Amnesty Day grew out of an idea to help solve that problem and get that furniture to people who could use it.”

The event was canceled in 2020 due to COVID restrictions, but in 2019 more than 700 pieces of furniture were collected during FAD.

Acceptable donations include: sofas, couches, desks, recliners, end tables, dressers, headboards, chairs, and kitchen tables.

Donations that will not be accepted include: dishwashers, pianos, grills, refrigerators, televisions, computers, and other electronics.
“Generally, we don’t accept anything that needs to be plugged in,” said Courtright.

Volunteers are available to pick up furniture donations at the curb for anyone in Manhattan city limits. This year, volunteers will only pick up a maximum of five furniture items per location. Please note, furniture sets such as a table and chairs will still only count as one item.

To register for pick-up service, please sign up online at cityofmhk.com/furniture or call the City Manager’s Office at 587-2404 during regular business hours. The deadline to register for pick-up service is 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 28. Please note, all items for donation pick up need to be at the curb by 7:00 a.m. on Friday, June 30. Volunteers will not enter homes to pick up donated furniture.

Donations can also be dropped off at Miller Field in City Park from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Friday, July 30.

Any furniture left unclaimed at 4:00 p.m. will be open to the general public without registration. At 4:30 p.m., the event will end. Any remaining pieces will be hauled away by staff and volunteers.

If weather conditions prevent the event from taking place on July 30, it will be canceled.

It takes lots of help to make Furniture Amnesty Day happen. HandsOn K-State is organizing the volunteer effort again this year. Anyone interested in helping out should fill out a volunteer form at www.CityofMHK.com/Furniture. Volunteers can choose which three-hour shift works best with their schedule. Drinks and snacks will be provided.

“As an individual who has both donated and acquired furniture through the event, I can attest that Furniture Amnesty Day is a terrific way that the City of Manhattan is able to mitigate waste,” said Cole Srajer, Senior at Kansas State University. “I tell all my friends about it, because it is a really cool opportunity to acquire or get rid of furniture. I`ve only lived in Manhattan for three years, but unique aspects such as Furniture Amnesty Day are small things that make me love this community even more!”