Summary
Roughly 70 to 80 percent of Boston residents start their leases on September 1, leading to
a spike in moving activity from the end of August through the beginning of September.
Residents who are moving often leave unwanted furniture on the curb for passersby to
take home (giving rise to the nickname “Allston Christmas”) or the Public Works
Department (PWD) to take to the landfill. While many residents and even City of Boston
(the City) stakeholders perceive this phenomenon as a circular economy that is closed,
sustainable, and equitable, this report shows that none of these assumptions hold true:
much of the furniture curbed around September 1 ends up in landfills, and items that are
picked up remain in communities that are highly educated and high-income, and
disproportionately made up of students and young professionals.
Where, then should usable furniture be directed during move-out, if the current system is
ineffective? Boston’s large migrant and unhoused populations, served by shelters, refugee
resettlement agencies, and nonprofit furniture banks, face significant challenges furnishing
homes with limited financial, social, and institutional resources; this creates an opportunity
to design a move-out furniture economy that better fulfills community ideals of
sustainability and equity by increasing access to curbed furniture for migrants and formerly
unhoused individuals. This approach opens a window for the Mayor’s Office of New Urban
Mechanics (MONUM) at the City to run and evaluate a pilot program.