How to Prepare Books for Donation: A Tampa Guide
Quick answer: Preparing books for donation in Tampa takes seven steps: skip the sorting, bag before you box, keep every box liftable, get it off the slab, stage it under the carport, keep it clear of the oak, and set it out on the morning of your service day. Give My Books Network collects free, 8 AM to 8 PM.
How Do I Prepare Books for Donation in Tampa?
Pack them yourself, in advance, into boxes or sturdy bags that are well filled and not too heavy. A Local Pick-Up Partner does not bring boxes.
- Do not sort. Hardcovers, paperbacks, children's books, DVDs, CDs and puzzles all ride together in the same box.
- Bag first, then box. Put a layer of plastic between the paper and the Florida air.
- Keep every box liftable. Roughly thirty pounds. Small box packed full, never a big box packed heavy.
- Get the boxes off the concrete. A plank, a pallet, a folded towel. Two inches of air is plenty.
- Stage them under cover. The carport, the deep front porch, or just inside a screened lanai.
- Not under the oak. Summer storms bring limbs down, and a live oak over a driveway drops them onto whatever is below.
- Set out on the morning of your service day. Never the night before.
The rest of this page is the reasoning behind each one. Four of the seven are really about the weather, which is what living on this coast does to a packing list.
Why Bag the Books Before You Box Them?
Bagging comes first because Tampa humidity does not need rain to get into a box. A sealed carton sitting in a hot carport takes on moisture from the air alone and goes musty without a single drop ever falling on it.
Line the box with a bag, or bag the books in groups and drop the bags in. Either method puts plastic between the paper and the day.
That plastic covers the hours between your morning set-out and your partner's arrival. This is the step people skip. It is also the step Florida charges them for.
How Heavy Should a Donation Box Be?
Light enough to carry from the door out to the carport without setting it down, which works out to somewhere around thirty pounds.
Books weigh far more than they look like they weigh. A banker's box of hardcovers is about the ceiling for one person. The same books loaded into a large moving box is a back injury with a lid on it.
Split anything that feels heavy into two smaller boxes. Sturdy bags work perfectly well, so long as they are packed properly and will not give way at the bottom when lifted.
To be plain about the division of labor: you pack. Give My Books Network partners collect what is already packed and waiting.
Where the Boxes Wait in a Tampa Yard
Under the carport, on a covered porch, or just inside a screened lanai. Anywhere with a roof over it and a clear path from the driveway.
Tampa is built for this. The bungalows in Seminole Heights have porches deep enough to sit out a storm on. The block ranches have carports and terrazzo floors. Half the houses in this city already have the right spot, and it is usually where the bikes end up.
One warning that is genuinely local: not under the oak. A live oak arching over a driveway is the best thing about a Tampa street and a real hazard in a summer storm. Limbs come down without much warning. Stage the boxes somewhere with a roof rather than somewhere with a canopy.
Why Never the Night Before?
Boxes left out overnight in Tampa meet the rain, the sprinklers, or both, because the afternoon storm is close to a scheduled appointment from June through September.
Wet cardboard on a wet driveway gives out in about four seconds, and it always chooses the moment somebody is lifting it.
Set them out at 8 AM instead. Collection runs to 8 PM, and you do not need to be home for any part of it.
What You Can Skip Entirely
Skip the cleaning, the counting and the alphabetizing, because none of it changes where a single book ends up.
Do not wipe covers. Do not peel old price stickers, erase highlighting, or pull the sticky notes out. Local Pick-Up Partners go through every item by hand offsite after collection.
The one exception is mildew. A furred or fused book stays out of the box, because mildew spreads to the good books packed around it. That is the only sorting anyone asks of you.
What Happens After a Tampa Pickup?
Local Pick-Up Partners sort everything offsite once it is collected, which is exactly why nothing needs separating at your end.
Much of it is passed along to readers, schools, libraries, nonprofits and organizations requesting books through the Give ME Books program, which Give My Books Network runs. A portion is resold to sustain the free pickup. Anything that cannot be reused may, as a last resort, be recycled.
For the institutional view of what makes a donation genuinely usable, the American Library Association's overview of book donation programs covers the ground well.
If a Local Pick-Up Partner covers your ZIP code, Give My Books Network can put you on the calendar right away. If nobody covers it yet, the request goes into the out-of-area system and a partner nearby may take it on. Pack it, cover it, set it out, book the day.
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