How to prepare books for donation in Denver, step by step: what to pack them in, how heavy is too heavy, where to set them out, and how to plan for hail.
Quick answer: Pack the books yourself into boxes or sturdy bags, keep each one light enough for one person to carry, and set them out by 8 AM in a dry, covered spot. A Give My Books Network Local Pick-Up Partner collects them anywhere in Denver between 8 AM and 8 PM. Your partner does not bring boxes, and you do not need to be home.
Pack, schedule, set out. Give My Books Network asks the donor to do the packing in advance, because a Local Pick-Up Partner arrives to collect what is already boxed and waiting rather than to load a shelf.
That is the whole job. Collection runs from 8 AM to 8 PM, and nobody needs to be home.
Anything sturdy with a bottom that will hold. Moving boxes and banker's boxes are ideal, plastic totes are excellent in weather, and doubled grocery bags work fine for a small load.
Your Local Pick-Up Partner does not bring boxes. That surprises people once and never twice, so it is worth repeating: whatever is packed and set out by 8 AM is what travels. A single flimsy grocery bag with fourteen hardcovers in it will not survive the walk to the vehicle.
If you cannot carry it across the room by yourself, it is too heavy. Books are deceptive — a banker's box packed tight with hardcovers can top fifty pounds without looking like much.
Split the heavy ones. Two half-full boxes are a kindness to everyone involved, and there is no charge per box, so splitting costs you nothing. Mix paperbacks in with the hardcovers to spread the load, and leave a little air at the top.
The covered porch is the natural spot. Denver's brick bungalows and Denver squares came with deep front porches, and a post-war brick ranch usually has an alley garage — both are exactly what a Local Pick-Up Partner is hoping to find.
Wherever you choose, make it findable from the street and out of the weather. Nobody wants to hunt.
Denver's dry air is on your side and Denver's sky is not. Books stored for years in a local garage or basement usually come out fine — no mildew, no swelling — because the humidity simply is not there to ruin them.
The set-out day is where it gets interesting. A wet March snow can drop a foot before noon, and summer hail can turn a cardboard box into pulp in ten minutes. Check the forecast the night before, and if it looks lively, put a tote lid or a contractor bag over the top. Sun matters too: a box baking in full altitude sun all afternoon will fade every spine facing up.
No sorting at all. Hardcovers and paperbacks in the same box, children's books mixed with textbooks, a stack of DVDs on top of a puzzle, vinyl records leaning against a board game.
'Should I separate the kids' books?' Nope. 'Do the CDs go in a different bag?' They do not. Local Pick-Up Partners sort everything offsite after collection, and they are considerably faster at it than you will be at your dining table on a Thursday night. Pack it together and hand it over.
Your Local Pick-Up Partner sorts everything offsite. Many items are redistributed through the Give ME Books program to schools, libraries, nonprofits, literacy programs, senior centers, and Little Free Libraries that have run dry.
Some items are resold by the partner, which is what pays for the vehicle and the free service. Items that cannot be reused may eventually be recycled, as a last resort. Libraries cannot take most of what is offered to them — the Book Donation Programs guide from the American Library Association is honest about why — and that overflow is exactly what a doorstep pickup exists to catch. No drive down Federal Boulevard with a car full of boxes required.
We'll come to your door — no cost, no hassle. Book pickup, DVD pickup, large-quantity, estate, and more in Denver, CO.
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