Image by Flickr user jimrenaud

If you've lived in downtown Charleston for at least one August, you're most likely familiar with the college move-out mess.

Beginning this weekend and continuing through the first week of August, students flock back to Charleston and start the moving out process. Everything under the sun that they no longer need in their apartment gets tossed onto the curb, and the trash piles begin to resemble small houses. Couches, mattresses, chairs, kitchenware, clothes, and more clog up city streets and seriously tick off the full-time residents.

Despite efforts by both the city and the the college, in the past, Charleston's streets turn into one huge dump. However, this year, the City of Charleston is expanding their efforts to keep Charleston clean and keep those trash piles in check. The College of Charleston has decided to foot a part of the clean-up bill as well.

So what's going to be different this year? For starters, code enforcement officers are being dispatched to Harleston Village, Cannonborough-Elliottborough, and Radcliffeborough to write citations if necessary but are also prepared to pick up some trash. Their patrol begins today and will continue on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. However, many leases aren't up until August 1st, so it may be worth extending their patrol until Monday. Just a thought.

For more on this year's efforts to put an end to the trash piles, pop over to the article in The Post and Courier.