The Morro Bay Citywide Yard Sale will not be held again in 2021 due to the Coronavirus Pandemic response, but the garbage company will be holding its Clean-Up Week, March 1-5. In the photo, a happy bargain-hunter holds a treasure she found during the 2018 Citywide Yard Sale.
There won’t be a Citywide Yard Sale Weekend again in 2021, after the City of Morro Bay canceled last year’s and this year’s events due to the coronavirus pandemic response.
But, the Morro Bay Garbage Company will hold up its end of the bargain with a Clean-Up Week, set for March 1-5, when residential garbage customers can put extra trash out on the curb and have the company pick it up at no extra charge.
To participate, place your extra garbage on the curb no later than 6 a.m. on your regular garbage pick-up day, according to a news release from the company and City of Morro Bay.
If you are late to the curb, the company said it won’t be picked up.
And don’t pile stuff up blocking your garbage can because they use automated arms to empty the cans.
The company said, “Clean-Up Week garbage may be placed in standard trash cans or tied into bundles. Standard trash containers will be emptied and left on the curb. Boxes and plastic bags will be taken away with your garbage. If you want your non-standard containers left behind, please mark or place a note on them.”
There are of course rules. “Containers or bundles of garbage must weigh 75-pounds or less and must measure 4-feet or less in overall length.
“Garbage, green waste, and recycling combined for six cans, bags, or bundles plus your waste wheelers. Excess garbage will be left on the curb.
“Six standard trash cans [32 gallons each] or the equivalent in bags, boxes, or bundles. Each not to exceed 75 pounds and 4-feet in length.”
If readers have “bulky” items, the company will pick them up but you must call a week ahead of time to arrange for pickup. And while it isn’t free, they have a varying scale on costs. There is a limit on how much of this they will pick up.
The types of items that they will haul off include: TVs, water heaters, couches, washers, dryers, small appliances, chairs, box springs, mattresses and refrigerators. Also, they will pick up overstuffed chairs, car tires and up to four, wheel rims.
If something is too heavy or bulky for one worker to handle will be an additional cost, which they will quote you when you call them at: (805) 528-7430.
You must call a week in advance and they will not accept same-day calls. Bulky items will not be picked up unless you call first.
“These special prices are valid only during Clean-Up Week. Items must be on the curb to qualify for these special prices,” the company said.
They also will not accept auto parts or hazardous wastes. If readers have old paint, solvents and such they want to get rid of, the City Sewer Treatment Plant on Atascadero Road has a free household hazardous waste drop-off facility open on Saturdays that will take those items and dispose of them properly.
Previous to 2020 and 2021, the Annual Citywide Yard Sale was held in conjunction with Clean-Up Week. The over 100 yard sales held on those weekends, were a chance to get into the spirit of spring cleaning and the ideal of repurposing items, for as they say, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” or something to that effect.
In years past, the yard sale weekend brought over 6,000 people to town.
The event was begun by Morro Bay Beautiful and the City Tourism Bureau took it over in 2019. It was canceled last year due to the pandemic response.
The pandemic’s subsequent drop of tax revenues from a shut down economy led to the Tourism Bureau being dissolved last spring and the City has not actively promoted the town’s tourism industry since last March, when the Governor issued stay-at-home orders to try and stop the spread of the virus.
It’s unclear if the event will return, however, it has the potential to be a good moneymaker, potentially worth several thousand dollars if a group wanted to take it up. It quickly became one of the biggest events in terms of drawing people to town.
