There is a shelf in most Ashburn Village garages that looks the same. Two or three cans of paint with dried rings around the lids, left over from a bedroom repaint two summers ago. A laptop that stopped charging sometime last winter, still sitting in a drawer because nobody wants to just throw a computer in the trash. A bottle of allergy pills that expired before the kids started at Ashburn Elementary. None of it is worth a special trip anywhere. All of it needs to go somewhere eventually.
On Saturday, October 3, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the Lakes Parking Lot at 44078 Cheltenham Circle becomes the place where all four of those things get solved at once. The Ashburn Village Community Association calls it the Fall Yard Sale, Shred, Paint and Electronic Recycle Event, and the name is doing more work than most residents give it credit for. This is not a yard sale with a couple of side tables. It is four separate errands that happen to share a parking lot and a four-hour window.
What One Trip to the Lakes Lot Actually Covers
Read the flyer closely and the event breaks into distinct stations, each with its own vendor, its own rules, and its own reason to plan ahead.
| Service | What Happens | Cost or Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Yard sale | Register your address for the community map, or reserve a table at the Lakes Rec Center | Free, sign up through the QR code on the flyer or email [email protected] |
| Paper shredding | A shredding company works on site in the Lakes Parking Lot | Included with the event |
| Paint recycling | Drop off old cans for disposal | First three cans free, $5 each additional can |
| Electronics recycling | A vendor accepts eligible electronics on site | Check the restrictions list before loading your car |
| Prescription take-back | Loudoun County Sheriff's Office collects expired or unused medication | Valid ID required for proof of residency |
Five stations, one Saturday, one parking lot. That is a different kind of event than the phrase "yard sale" usually promises.
The Saturday That Used to Be Simpler
It is worth knowing what this event replaced, because the shift says something about how the community has changed. Back in September of 2013, a resident posted a listing for a community-wide yard sale in Ashburn Village. Saturday, September 7, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., with a rain date the next day. Maps were available two days ahead of time at the Ashburn Village Sports Pavilion, and that was the entire event. No shredding vendor, no paint disposal, no electronics, no law enforcement table.
Look at the community association's own list of recurring traditions today and Shred events and Community Yard Sales still appear as separate line items, alongside things like the Fiesta 5K/10K, the Kids Triathlon, and the Halloween Spooktacular. That suggests these started as distinct occasions on the calendar. Somewhere between then and now, someone at the AVCA connected the dots. Residents who show up to sell an old bike or a stroller are the same residents sitting on a stack of tax documents from 2019, a half-used gallon of exterior paint, and a phone that has been sitting in a junk drawer since the last upgrade. Bundling all of it into one Saturday morning means one trip instead of four, and it means the community only has to close down one parking lot instead of scheduling separate mornings throughout the fall.
What the Paint Vendor Will Actually Take
The paint recycling piece has a specific limit that is easy to miss if you are just skimming the flyer. Your first three cans are free. Each additional can costs $5. That is a reasonable deal if you are clearing out a shed or finishing a basement project, but it only applies to the categories the vendor accepts.
Wood and deck stains, DryLock, polyurethane sealers, spray paint, and anything classified as hazardous waste are not part of this program. If your garage shelf includes a can of deck stain from resealing the back steps, that one needs a different disposal path. The event is built around interior and exterior wall paint, not the full range of coatings a homeowner might accumulate over a few years of projects.
Electronics, With a List Worth Checking First
The electronics station comes with its own restrictions list, and the flyer is direct about it: review the list before you load the car. AVCA does not spell out every excluded item in the public notice, which means the smart move is to check the list attached to the event flyer or ask through [email protected] before hauling a truck bed of old monitors to the Lakes lot.
It helps to know how this compares to the alternative. Loudoun County runs its own electronics recycling events for the entire county, but only a handful of times a year, split between spring and fall. Having a vendor come directly into the neighborhood on a Saturday morning, rather than driving out to whichever county site is hosting that quarter's event, is a real convenience specific to living here. It is easy to take for granted until you have tried to find a countywide drop-off date that actually lines up with your schedule.
The Table Most People Walk Past
The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office will be on site specifically to collect and safely dispose of expired or unused prescription medication. A valid ID is required to prove residency at drop-off. This is the station that tends to get the least attention, mostly because prescription take-back does not fit the mental picture of a yard sale day. But medicine cabinets accumulate the same way garages do, and having a law enforcement presence handle disposal properly, rather than flushing pills or tossing them in the trash, is worth the walk across the parking lot.
Turning the Morning Into One Loop Instead of Four Trips
Here is a practical order for anyone planning to use more than one station that Saturday:
- If you want to sell items, register your address for the community map ahead of time using the QR code on the flyer, or reach out to [email protected] to reserve a table at the Lakes Rec Center.
- Sort what you are bringing before you load the car. Documents in one box, electronics in another, paint cans counted so you know if you are past the free limit, and any prescriptions in a separate bag with ID ready.
- Check the electronics restrictions list before you leave the house, since a wasted trip with an item the vendor cannot accept means driving it right back home.
- Arrive with enough time before the 1 p.m. close, since a four-hour window that covers five different services tends to move steadily rather than all at once.
If you are only there to shop the yard sale, the same basic approach that worked in 2013 still works now. Grab a printed map or pull up the digital version through the AVCA site, and plan your route through the neighborhood before you start walking or driving door to door.
A Morning Built for a Neighborhood Like This One
None of this changes what Ashburn Village is at its core, a community built around its lakes, its trails, and a shared sense that the small logistics of life here should be easier, not harder. The same instinct that shaped how residents use the neighborhood's lakes, pools, and trails is the instinct behind folding four errands into one Saturday morning. It is a small thing, but it is the kind of small thing that adds up to why people stay.
If you are weighing a move into Ashburn Village, or already live here and are curious what else shapes daily life in this part of Loudoun County, Sell Buy NOVA Homes is happy to talk through what the neighborhood offers beyond the market numbers. Let's Connect.
