Sandy Levasseur sat on her Old Orchard Beach camp porch Saturday night enjoying the feel of her new, extra thick, silver futon.

“This one here is 4 inches thick – that’s why I ran” she said, describing her Clean Sweep haul over the phone. “That’s what I came for.”

Levasseur, of Lewiston, was second in line Saturday morning for Bates’ annual Clean Sweep “garage sale.” She’s gone six of the seven years the sale has been running, and she and a friend try to get there early every time.

“She (Levasseur’s friend) was there at 5:30, and I was there about 5:40,” she said. “I had to stop for Dunkin’s.” The sale started at 8 a.m.

“The line wrapped around to Campus Ave,” said Bates environmental coordinator Julie Rosenbach, who oversaw the event.

Tables, chairs, refrigerators, microwaves, heaps of clothing, textbooks, magazines, curtains, pots and pans, shoes and nearly everything else your typical college student might leave in the dorm at the end of the school year are sold in a huge, college-wide yard sale – to help the environment and local nonprofits, which send volunteers to work the sale.

“The money goes to nonprofits. They staff it – volunteer for it and all the money goes back to the organizations according to how much work they put in,” Rosenbach said.

Last year, Clean Sweep netted around $9,500.

A group of local high-schoolers congregated around an orange chair and a ratty-looking couch, oohing and aaahing over each other’s finds. One girl had bought a chair, a bag of clothes and two pillows – all for under $25.

“I saw jackets out here this morning that would go for $400 at L.L. Bean,” said Marcel Chasse, a volunteer with Our Lady of the Rosary in Sabattus. “They were selling for $10, $15. Oh, it was unbelievable.”

As for Levasseur, she came for the futon and stayed for just about everything else.

“I got a cupboard for the porch, some throw rugs, a couple books to read, a lamp, a shelving unit, towels, office supplies, coffee cups to drink out of,” she said. “Everything was pretty cheaply marked, I think I spent a total of $80.” As she spoke, she remembered more. “I found curtains, really nice curtains,” she said. “Whoever had them had just had them cleaned.” Her friend had come in looking for a refrigerator. There were 15 or so clustered in the back when everybody rushed in at 8. “They were gone in five to 10 minutes,” she said.

“I priced futons at KMart the other day,” Levasseur said. They cost around $250. “I hate to spend that. But for $20, or $25, I’ll run and look. I’m sitting on it right now.”