How to pack books for donation the right way. Learn best practices for boxing, labeling, and scheduling free pickup with Give My Books Network. Find out more.
Most people underpack. That's just the truth. Boxes that shift and crumple in transit, paperbacks with bent covers, hardcovers with cracked spines that were totally avoidable with a little more care up front. If you're figuring out how to pack books for donation: best practices and tips, here's what we've found: the packing step is where most of the damage happens. Or doesn't.
And it matters more than people realize. Books that arrive in good shape can be redistributed to readers, schools, libraries, nonprofits, and organizations requesting books through programs like Give ME Books. Books that show up damaged? Much harder to pass along to anyone.
Small and medium boxes. Almost always. A large box packed with books gets heavy fast, heavy enough that it's genuinely difficult to move safely, and the bottom is likely to give out before it gets where it's going. We've watched the bottom fall out of oversized boxes more times than we can count, especially in humid Philadelphia summers when cardboard softens and loses its structure.
Used boxes from grocery stores or liquor stores tend to be sturdier than standard shipping boxes. Liquor store boxes especially, they're built to carry weight. If you're in the Philadelphia area and doing a big book cleanout, those are worth grabbing before you start packing anything.
Here's a practical test: can you lift the box comfortably with one hand while holding something else with the other? Good. If you need two hands and a grunt, it's too heavy. Well-packed and not too heavy, that's the standard. It makes the whole process easier for everyone touching those boxes after you.
Three ways to orient books in a box. Two work. One ruins them.
Flat stacking, laying books horizontally, works well for shorter stacks. Spine-in packing, standing books upright the way they'd sit on a shelf, also works, especially for hardcovers. What doesn't work is packing books spine-up or spine-down with pages facing out. That bends pages and warps covers under the weight of whatever's stacked on top. We've unpacked boxes where entire paperback collections were packed that way and the books looked like they'd been through a storm.
For a mix of sizes, lay the largest and heaviest books flat at the bottom. Stack lighter and smaller books on top. Lots of paperbacks? Stand them upright spine-in, just make sure they're snug enough that they can't flop sideways. A little tension is good. Loose books shift and damage each other on the way over.
Empty space inside a box is where damage happens. Books slide, corners hit corners, covers bend, spines crack. Most guides rush past this detail, but it's one of the things that separates a box that arrives intact from one that doesn't.
Crumpled newspaper, packing paper, old t-shirts, all fine. You don't need bubble wrap or anything specialty. The goal is just to stop movement. Shake the box gently. If you feel or hear things shifting, add more filler. When the contents feel solid, you're done.
Don't overstuff to where the lid won't close flat. Press it down gently. If it closes without forcing, the fill level is right. A box that can't close properly is harder to stack and more likely to get crushed.
Packing tape. Not masking tape. Not painter's tape. Those aren't strong enough for a loaded box of books. Run tape along the bottom seam in both directions, an H-pattern, before you load a single book. This is the step most people skip. It's also the reason boxes fail at the bottom.
Once loaded, tape the top the same way. If the box is particularly heavy, add a second strip along the bottom center seam. We did a pickup in West Philadelphia where someone had used painter's tape on a box of art books. Bottom gave out on the stairs. Everything was salvageable, barely. Packing tape costs almost nothing. Use it.
Boxes aren't your only option. Sturdy bags, reusable shopping bags, tote bags, heavy-duty bags, work fine for books as long as they're not overpacked. Same rule: not too heavy, packed snugly so books aren't flopping around inside.
Plastic bags have one real advantage in Philadelphia's unpredictable weather. If you're leaving items outside starting at 8 AM for a scheduled pickup, a bag gives you a layer of moisture protection that an open cardboard box doesn't. Rain in the forecast? Double-bag, or set boxes inside a large plastic bag before putting them out. A garage or covered porch is even better. The pickup window runs 8 AM to 8 PM, so items just need to be out and reachable.
Donating books alongside DVDs, CDs, or vinyl records? Keep them in separate boxes or bags where you can. Nobody requires it. But mixed packing tends to result in books getting wedged at odd angles against hard plastic cases, and record corners are brutal on paperback covers. Small detail. Real difference in what shows up in usable condition.
Books that are packed well arrive ready to be passed along. Many items are redistributed to readers, schools, libraries, nonprofits, and organizations requesting books, and they get there in shape to actually be used. That's the whole point.
Here's where most packing guides get it wrong. They jump straight to boxes and tape. What you do before you pack is where you actually save time. A quick pass through your pile means you're not unpacking and repacking later, and it means whoever handles your books after pickup can move faster too.
You don't need to do a thorough sort. Nobody is asking you to organize by genre or alphabetize by author.
Pull out anything that's genuinely falling apart. Covers hanging off by a thread, pages that are water-damaged and warped, mold you can actually smell. Books in that condition are difficult to pass along to readers or nonprofits, and harder to resell to help sustain the free pickup service either. Setting them aside now means you're not packing weight that won't go anywhere useful.
Last spring, we did a pickup in West Philadelphia where someone had packed up about four boxes and nearly a full box was soaked through from a basement leak. The books had dried out but were buckled and musty throughout. That whole box had to be separated at the end. A quick flip-through beforehand would have saved everyone the trouble. We get situations like this pretty regularly, actually.
Everything else, older books, textbooks from a decade ago, novels with a cracked spine, can stay in the pile. You don't need to judge whether something is "good enough." Local Pick-Up Partners sort items after collection. Your job is just catching the obvious stuff that genuinely can't be used by anyone.
No sorting required before pickup. Everything can go in together. Local Pick-Up Partners handle sorting after collection. That step belongs to them, not you. We say this because we've had donors spend an hour organizing books into neat categories, labeling boxes, color-coding bags, and while that energy is appreciated, it's not necessary on your end at all.
The one thing that does help? Keeping clearly damaged or unsalvageable books out of the boxes entirely. That's the only pass that actually matters before you start packing.
Sounds obvious. We still see it constantly. People use books as storage. We've pulled out birthday cards, old photos, bookmarks with handwritten notes, envelopes with cash tucked inside. Once a box leaves your porch, it's gone. Tracking down a specific item after the fact is nearly impossible.
Flip through each book before it goes in the box. Two seconds per book. Do it now, not after you've taped everything shut.
Same goes for library books. Philadelphia Free Library books, school library books, anything with a barcode sticker or a "Property of" stamp, pull those out. Those need to go back, not into a donation box. We've had pickups in Fishtown and Germantown where a handful of library books ended up in the pile. It happens more than you'd think. A quick look at the spine or inside cover catches it every single time.
This is the part people skip. Then they regret it. Books are heavy. A standard banker's box packed full of hardcovers can hit 40 to 50 pounds easily, and carrying something like that down a flight of stairs is how people hurt their backs. The fix is simple.
Smaller boxes, packed firmly but not to the brim. A box you can carry with one hand on the bottom and one on the side, that's the right weight. Straining to lift it off the ground means it's too heavy. Medium-sized boxes, think the kind that holds a case of copy paper, work better than large moving boxes for books. Large boxes tempt you to fill them completely. That turns a manageable task into a back problem, and we've seen it happen.
Boxes aren't your only option. Sturdy bags work fine, especially for paperbacks. Same condition as boxes: not too heavy. A bag that's dragging on the ground when you lift it is too full. The handles need to hold when the bag is lifted. Thin plastic grocery bags aren't the move here. Reusable shopping bags, paper grocery bags with handles, heavy-duty bags all work well.
Whatever you use, the goal is the same: packed well, not too heavy, easy to carry from wherever you leave them to the pickup vehicle. Items should be left in a safe, dry spot starting at 8 AM. Outside, in a garage, or another accessible area works. Nobody needs to be home or hand anything off. Leave it out and it gets handled. The pickup window runs between 8 AM and 8 PM, and unless there are special circumstances, there's no need to contact anyone or be present at all.
A little prep before you pack means everything moves faster, for you, and for the readers, schools, libraries, and nonprofits those books eventually reach. Ready to schedule a free pickup? It takes about two minutes and someone will come to you.
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