What to do with old books?

[Perpetuallywondering]

Just as the title says, really! I’m helping my parents clear their house for downsizing and am having to push for a lot of decisions to be made.
Next up are the books. The “read but still in good condition” books are easy to donate to local second hand bookshops, but what do you do with nearly century-old books, no first editions, in terrible condition but with some sentimental value. We can’t keep literally shelves full of them. They’re largely children’s books which are are musty, outdated (and frankly some have dubious opinions).

Contrary to my aged-p’s belief, I don’t think any second hand shop will want them. They have no monetary value. Do we just tip them, though?! That seems only one step up from burning 😱

Maybe offer free to collectors? Our local tip has a recycling box for old books so that's where I offload any old damaged books.

If they are awful and no one would buy them even second hand take them to the dump

I'd love to know which books/authors you have as I'm always trying to find certain old children's books and they're not easy to come by!

Whereabouts are you? I deal in old books, especially children’s ones, and might well be interested….

Dump, I'm afraid.

Having helped my DM downsize - took over a year! - you just have to make decisions, and move on. This is what happens when people hang on to absolutely everything they've ever owned for the past several decades.

I'm enjoying Swedish Death Cleaning in my late 50s.

Recyle.

Children's books can go for a small fortune, depending on the book in question- don't have to be first editions or even in the best condition sometimes.

This
you could always tell them you’d taken them to a charity.

I’ve had this with mine. Turns out no charity shops want them any more. No value. So what I did was contact a charity who sends books to Africa to help people learn to read. You box them up and send them to them.

You could try an auction house. We took a 1000 books to auction. Some lots sold and those unsold (most of them) were donated by the auction house to Abe Books as we said we didn't want them back. These were beautiful condition non-fiction books and still nobody wanted them. Shame really but I hear the same from other people.

Terrible condition? Dump them. Sorry. (Tell your parents you’re donating them).

We've got this with my MiL's house. She died last month but in the year or so before she died she asked us to take the "decent" books to a charity shop, which we did

We've now got to deal with lots of old books on poor condition, no one will want them, and the house is 7 hours from us. We are thinking about booking a house clearance service - BHF offer one - and letting them deal with it.

It depends whether your main aim is to declutter or whether money is important.
I would take to the tip. Charity shops here aren't interested in any books, even new, unread paperbacks.

Our local Oxfam bookshop has a rare books section. It might be worth seeing if your local one does too.

If they are in poor condition, put them in the recycling bin. Charity shops aren't likely to want books with the pages falling out.

Same here. Beautiful art books etc

I’m currently doing the same thing, so thanks for the post and everyone’s ideas.

@Aluna could you share the details please?

https://books2africa.org/donate-books-and-computers/?gadsource=1&gadcampaignid=19394233917&gbraid=0AAAAADsuXMLMoehjKA-Myyi10Tyh0Bpyq

Here you are.

I have this ahead of me with MIL. DH will struggle with this.

I'd just check for first editions or anything that looks collectible and skip the rest. And yes, there are that many. Our house will be as bad.

My nephew took PIL to auction as a job lot. No bids, no interest. We threw them in the tip. We threw lots of their stuff in the tip.

Whereabouts are you? I have lots of old books (many >100 years old, all >60), most in reasonable or good condition. Nothing really valuable as far as I can tell. Skipping them feels like a crime.

I’m in Lancashire, and can travel within reason….

I’ve know a few artists who use old books. Might be worth a shoutout on Facebook marketplace etc, to see if anyone local wants them for art/ projects…

Please could you PM me with your info? I’m in Merseyside.