Every year in late July or early August, when most apartment leases in Lawrence expire and college students move into new places to call home, the harvest begins.

Tons of rubbish, scores of appliances, box after box of discarded clothes and utensils begin showing up in trash bins. People roam the alleys and streets looking for abandoned barbecue grills, refrigerators, all sorts of items left behind in the annual movement of college students from one dwelling to another.

“This is my fifth year and I’ve moved four times, and I don’t want to move anymore,” said Leah Hamilton, a 22-year-old Kansas University student weary of it all. “I don’t want to move, and then something always happens. Keepsakes are not your best friend.”

On many streets in Lawrence, there seems to be a bounty of furniture, appliances and “keepsakes” no longer to be kept in the place they started. Across the street from Hamilton’s new residence, there was a washer and dryer, apparently in good condition, idle on the curb.

What happens to these washers, couches, televisions and other discarded items?

Many of them wind up in the hands of scavengers, also known in Lawrence as Dumpster divers.

James Hogwood, 31, who was helping the students move in, said he was eager for next week, when the curbside and Dumpster pickings should be plentiful.

“In a week, there is good scavenging to be had,” he said. “I just drive through alleys and look through Dumpsters for furniture and appliances.”

City refuse workers also scour student neighborhoods looking for unruly piles in July and August, two of the busiest months for city sanitation crews. The heaps of rubbish and furniture can be quite large, so the city plans ahead for this time of year.

“We keep our eyes open. We send people out even if it’s not trash day. That’s our goal,” to keep the streets relatively tidy, said Bob Yoos, the city’s solid waste division manager.

Jay Gaudreau, front, and Patrick Cleary negotiate a flight of stairs as they carry a couch to their moving truck. The roommates, both Kansas University juniors from Wichita, moved their belongings to their new apartment near 13th and Ohio on Tuesday. As leases expire and students move to new apartments and leave behind many of their belongings, Dumpster diving is in season in Lawrence.

Not everything winds up in the trash. July and August also are busy months for the Salvation Army Thrift Shop, 1818 Mass.

“At the end of the month when leases are up, it’s the busiest time of the year as far as donations,” said manager Billy Collette.

He said the students usually brought in desk furniture and school supplies.

There is another way for students to clean house and find useful purposes for the items they no longer want. A new grass-roots group called the Lawrence Freecycle Network has an Internet site, freecycle.org, that allows people to post items they no longer need and connect with others who are looking to acquire. All posted items must be free.

“The students put stuff out that goes straight to the dump; we think that’s awful,” said Cheryl Miller, one of two moderators of the Lawrence Freecycle site. “If students sign up, we could get rid of that stuff.”

Katie Gaudreau, a recent KU graduate, lives with 11 other women at 1121 Ohio. Though she was able to enlist the help of her brother, Jay, when moving in, he’s passing on helping during the move out.

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“He’s so glad he’s going to be out of town this weekend so he doesn’t have to do it,” Katie Gaudreau said. “Some of his buddies are going to.”

But Jay Gaudreau will be taking something out of his sister’s old digs: While over at her house, Jay realized not one of the 12 girls had laid claim to a giant couch. He latched onto it for his new home.