Where to Donate Books in Melbourne

When it is time to declutter, deciding to donate books in Melbourne is one of the most rewarding moves you can make. Over more than two decades as removalists in Melbourne, we have seen just how many homes carry shelves of books that deserve a second life. Whether you are downsizing, moving interstate, or simply tidying up, finding a good home for your pre-loved books makes the whole process feel lighter and more meaningful. The same goes for clothes: our guide on where to donate clothes in Melbourne pairs neatly with a book clear-out.

This guide is the removalist’s version of a book-donation map. We move families across the city every week, so we know which charities collect from your door, which want drop-offs only, and which are on hold because they are buried in donations. Below you will find verified charities, libraries, community groups, and practical tips, all checked in July 2026, plus the hard numbers on why keeping books out of landfill matters.

Charities that accept book donations in Melbourne

Most Australian charities, including the Salvation Army, Vinnies and Red Cross, accept book donations for their op shops. Those stores fund real programs: charity retail generates around $500 million a year that goes back into charitable missions, according to Charitable Reuse Australia. Books are a big part of that second-hand economy, and the same shops are often the easiest place to donate furniture in Melbourne too.

Before you load the car, call the charity first. Popular stores often have too many books already, and specialist charities want specific titles. The table below sums up the dedicated book charities we recommend across Melbourne, with what they take and how they collect. Full details follow underneath.

Sources: charity websites, verified July 2026. Call ahead: acceptance changes with storage capacity.

Whatever the charities knock back usually leaves with the bookshelf, and that is the pile we get asked about most on a declutter. Bagged rubbish is not accepted, but before you pay for a skip it is worth checking what your council collects as hard waste: most Melbourne councils give you one to five free collections a year, and 27 of the 31 metro councils let you book your own date.

The New International Bookshop

• They accept: Drop-offs of books on LGBTQ issues, philosophy, social issues, arts, comics and zines
• Location: Lygon Street Wing of Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St, Carlton
• Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm, closed weekends (check current hours on the website)
• Website: The New International Bookshop

Melbourne’s oldest radical bookshop has specific requests, so check the list online before you visit. It is the ideal home for niche, political and activist titles that mainstream op shops tend to reject. The store now sits in the Lygon Street Wing of Trades Hall, opposite VTHC reception, an easy stop if you are already moving around Carlton.

Babel Books

• They accept: English, French and Spanish books; home pick-up in Melbourne, drop-off also available
• Minimum: They prefer to collect at least 50 books at a time and bring their own boxes
• Location: Victoria-wide (contact online first)
• Website: Babel Books

Contact Babel Books through their website form and they usually respond within 24 hours. If you pack your own boxes, keep each one small (around 40 x 30 x 30cm) and under 23kg so one person can lift it. Babel Books resells multilingual titles and gives 10% of sales to Magabala Books, a leading Indigenous publisher, so your clear-out supports Indigenous literacy too.

Preloved Bookstore

• They accept: Quality general titles, by arrangement
• Location: Abbotsford drop-off, plus postal donations Australia-wide
• Website: Preloved Bookstore book donations

If you live in or near Abbotsford, fill out the contact form and the team will arrange a drop-off time. From anywhere else in Australia you can post books in, but contact them first so they can confirm quality and subject matter. Note the correct site is prelovedbookstore.com.au for donations: reselling books to new readers keeps them out of landfill and supports a community of book lovers.

Embrace Education

• They accept: VCE study guides, textbooks no older than three years, stationery
• How: Home pick-up across Melbourne, arranged by email
• Status: Item donations are currently paused due to high volume; financial donations welcome
• Website: Embrace Education

Email donations@embrace-education.org with the titles, quantity and your address, and they arrange a pick-up if they can take them. Because donations have been running high, check the site first before you set anything aside. Your textbooks go to disadvantaged high-school students across Melbourne, especially migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, through homework clubs and tutoring.

Reading Out of Poverty

• They accept: Books for babies and toddlers (0-5 years), including multilingual titles
• They do not accept: Books on religious or war topics, or torn and ripped pages
• Location: Warehouse at 1 Aristoc Road, Glen Waverley 3150; office at Suite 15B, 20 Commercial Road, Melbourne 3004
• Website: Reading Out of Poverty

Drop your children’s books at the warehouse or office during normal business hours. Reading Out of Poverty has given out more than 450,000 books and created 320 pop-up libraries, mainly across Victoria, with recent expansion into North Queensland, the ACT and NSW. If you have early-years board books in good shape, this is the place.

123Read2Me

• They accept: Children’s books in good condition
• How: Drop-off in book bins
• Location: Bins across Melbourne’s east, bayside and Mornington Peninsula, plus Coles stores throughout Gippsland
• Website: 123Read2Me book bins

Book bins sit outside Bunnings (Nunawading, Scoresby, Moorabbin, Frankston, Carrum Downs), several Bendigo Community Bank branches, a few libraries, and Coles supermarkets across Gippsland (Pakenham, Warragul, Drouin, Moe, Morwell, Traralgon, Sale, Bairnsdale). Since 2016 the charity has passed on books worth more than $10 million in replacement value and now supports over 120 organisations. Check the website for the bin nearest you before you drive.

Brotherhood Books

• They accept: Books in good condition
• They do not accept: Encyclopaedias, magazines, outdated textbooks, damaged books
• Location: Any open Brotherhood of St Laurence op shop, Melbourne-wide
• Website: Brotherhood Books

Take your books to any open BSL store, or check stores.bsl.org.au for locations and hours. Volunteers sort, clean and sanitise every book before it is resold online or in shops, and the proceeds fund the Brotherhood’s social justice work. It is the easiest option if you have a mixed box of general good-condition titles.

More Melbourne book charities worth knowing

Beyond the mainstays, a handful of specialist charities do outstanding work and take donations at set times of year. These three focus on textbooks and on getting books to First Nations and remote communities right across the state, the same reach we cover as removalists in Victoria. Their impact numbers are striking for their size, so it is worth timing your donation to suit them.

Sources: Les Twentyman Foundation, Books n Boots, Aboriginal Literacy Foundation. Verified July 2026.

Les Twentyman Foundation, Back to School Program

• They accept: Recent textbooks on the current curriculum, especially VCE-level
• Location and hours: Footscray office, Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm
• Contact: 0491 218 082 or backtoschool@ltfoundation.au
• Website: Les Twentyman Foundation

Arrange textbook donations with the Footscray office, ideally before January so the team can sort before the new school year. The Back to School program supported 917 students in 2024/25, a 17.9% jump on the 778 helped the year before, diverting quality textbooks from landfill to disadvantaged Victorian students.

Books n Boots

• They accept: Children’s and educational picture books
• How: Drop-off during specific campaigns
• Location: Melbourne-wide, campaign-dependent (see website)
• Website: Books n Boots

Founded in 2015 by John Harding and Tara Newen after they learned Torres Strait schools had no picture books, Books n Boots has since diverted 16 tonnes of books, about 50,000 titles, from landfill to First Nations communities nationwide. Volunteers check each book by hand for cultural appropriateness. Watch their website or socials for the next book drive.

Aboriginal Literacy Foundation, Books to the North

• They accept: Children’s books (0-16 years): picture books, young adult novels, relevant non-fiction
• They do not accept: Adult novels, textbooks, encyclopaedias, damaged books
• Location: Melbourne and Ballarat (check the website first)
• Website: Aboriginal Literacy Foundation

The Books to the North program sends donated children’s books to more than 150 remote and regional schools across the Northern Territory, northern Western Australia and northern Queensland. The foundation pauses donations at times through the year to manage limited storage, so always check current guidelines before you drive over.

Other places to donate books in Melbourne

Dedicated charities are not your only option. Some of the simplest homes for pre-loved books are the institutions and community spaces already near you. Start with friends and family to keep books circulating, then work outward, which is a smart early line to add to your moving house checklist. The table groups the main options by how quick and local each one is.

A little research goes a long way in finding the right home for pre-loved books.

Donating to institutions

Schools and daycares: contact them first to see whether they take donations and which titles they need. Street libraries: these little community bookcases are perfect for swaps, and you can find one near you at streetlibrary.org.au. Public libraries: not all accept donations, so call and ask first. Retirement homes and medical rooms: large-print books and magazines are often welcome for waiting rooms and residents.

Online options and swap groups

• GIVIT: matches you directly with charities requesting specific items, so you donate exactly what is needed in Melbourne right now.
• Buy Nothing and swap groups: search Facebook for local gifting groups that rehome books within your suburb, and the same groups are handy when you need to get rid of old furniture during a move.
• Second-hand bookstores: many take donations, often focusing on rare or unusual titles. Search for stores near you and call ahead.
• Charity shops: the Salvation Army, Red Cross, Vinnies, Lifeline, Save the Children and Sacred Heart Mission typically accept book donations.

Book donation tips that get your books accepted

Donating well is not just about clearing shelves. The books most likely to be accepted are relevant, clean and in good condition. Get this right and you save the charity the cost of sorting rejects, which is real: nationally, charities spend millions each year removing unusable donations. The checklist below is what we tell clients before a move.

Based on stated acceptance guidelines from Brotherhood Books, ROOP and the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation.

Give books that are relevant and in good condition

Donating is not about offloading old books nobody wants. Avoid anything outdated, worn or superseded. Choose titles that match the reader’s language, reading level and interests. Good donations appeal to local readers and actually get used, rather than sitting in a sorting room waiting to be culled.

Find out what each charity is looking for

The best way to help is to ask. A quick call or a look at the website tells you whether they need board books, textbooks or general fiction, and whether they are accepting at all. Several Melbourne charities pause donations when storage fills, so checking first saves everyone a wasted trip.

Sort the logistics before you go

The biggest hurdle is simply getting the books there. Pack them in small boxes, around 40 x 30 x 30cm and under 23kg, so one person can carry each one safely, and our packing calculator helps you work out how many boxes you will need. If you are donating from overseas, note that no Australian body coordinates that: the donor covers shipping, customs and a local contact. For a local drop-off, our man with a van service handles a boot of boxes with ease.

Keep the relationship going

Do not just donate and forget. Follow up with more books, or ask what else would help, whether that is shelving, volunteering or a regular drop-off. Charities that get to know their donors keep the pipeline of good books flowing, and that is where the real, lasting impact sits.

The benefits of donating books in Melbourne

Melbourne runs on reading. Donating books does more than clear a shelf: it keeps paper out of landfill, funds charity programs, and puts titles into the hands of kids and families who need them. Clearing those shelves before a move also trims your load, and our removals volume calculator shows how much space you save. The numbers below show why that second life matters at a city and national scale.

• Supporting local libraries and literacy: donated books help libraries and programs keep free reading available. Literacy is a basic right, and your books can put reading within reach of disadvantaged children and adults.
• Reducing waste: Australia generates about 4.9 million tonnes of paper and cardboard waste a year, roughly 6.5% of all waste. Donating rather than binning keeps usable books in the economy, where charity reuse already diverts 588,000 tonnes of goods a year.
• Funding real programs: charity retail generates about $500 million a year for charitable missions. Every box of books you drop off feeds that.
• Connecting with your community: donating is a simple, satisfying way to get involved locally and make a genuine difference.

Donating books helps create a more literate, sustainable and equitable Melbourne. So why not declutter the bookshelf and make a difference today? If you need boxes for the job, check our guide to free moving boxes in Melbourne so you can pack those books ready to donate.

Other ways to dispose of books besides donation

Donation is the best outcome for most books, but not the only one. If a title is valuable, sell it, the same way people track down second-hand furniture in Melbourne. If it is damaged beyond use, recycle it responsibly. The table sums up the alternatives and when each one makes sense, so nothing usable ends up in landfill by default.

Consider a book’s condition and value before choosing how to move it on.

One tip on recycling: hardback covers often contain glue and board that standard kerbside bins reject, so check with your local facility before you bin them. Paperbacks are usually fine in paper recycling once the cover is removed if needed. If you have a big load to shift to the recycler or a buyer, a small van move makes short work of it. Australia recovers about 56% of its paper and cardboard, so recycling the ones that cannot be reused really does help close the loop.

Donate and move for less with North Removals

Donating books in Melbourne is a great way to declutter, but it can eat into a busy moving week. Finding the right charity and timing the drop-off is fiddly, especially when several are on hold. To make it easier and cheaper, take advantage of our Way Cheaper Wednesdays: move on a Wednesday and get 15% off with cheap removalists Melbourne who genuinely care. If you are also clearing the wardrobe, our list of places to donate clothes in Melbourne covers nearby bins and charity shops.

Over the years we have helped families who discovered whole libraries in their homes they no longer needed. One family we moved from Carlton had dozens of children’s books their kids had outgrown. On the way we dropped them at a community book bin, and seeing the kids excited to pass them on was the highlight of the day. Moving is about more than boxes: it is about fresh starts and small acts of kindness.

Whether you are decluttering a home office or just want more room before a local move, our team of office and home removalists in Melbourne is here to help. We also handle furniture you no longer need: see our guide to where to donate furniture in Melbourne. Get in touch today and let us make your move, and your book-donation mission, smooth, affordable and stress-free. If the calendar is tight, our same day removalists can help.

Frequently asked questions about donating books in Melbourne

Where can I donate books in Melbourne for free?

All book donation in Melbourne is free. The easiest free options are Brotherhood Books drop-offs at any Brotherhood of St Laurence op shop, 123Read2Me children’s book bins across the east and Gippsland, and your local street library found via streetlibrary.org.au.

Which Melbourne charities collect books from your home?

Two do. Embrace Education picks up recent textbooks and VCE guides across Melbourne, though item donations are currently paused. Babel Books collects English, French and Spanish books when you have at least 50, and brings its own boxes.

Where can I donate children’s books in Melbourne?

For early years, Reading Out of Poverty takes 0 to 5 board books at Glen Waverley and Melbourne 3004. 123Read2Me runs children’s book bins across the east and Gippsland, and the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation takes kids’ books up to age 16 when storage allows.

Where can I donate old textbooks in Melbourne?

The Les Twentyman Foundation Back to School program in Footscray takes recent VCE-level textbooks, ideally before January. Embrace Education accepts textbooks no older than three years. Both put them straight to disadvantaged students, so avoid superseded editions.

Do op shops like Vinnies and Salvos take book donations?

Yes. The Salvation Army, Vinnies, Red Cross, Lifeline, Save the Children and Sacred Heart Mission typically accept general good-condition books. Call ahead if you have a large quantity, as busy stores sometimes have more books than shelf space.

What books will charities not accept?

Most reject mouldy or water-damaged books, torn pages, missing covers, old encyclopaedias, outdated textbooks and magazines. Some also decline religious or war-themed titles. Clean, recent, popular titles that match the charity’s focus are always the safest donation.

Should I call before donating books?

Yes, especially for a large load or a specialist charity. Several Melbourne groups, including Embrace Education and the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation, pause donations when storage fills. A quick call or website check confirms they are open and want what you have.

Can North Removals help me move and donate books?

Yes. Our man with a van service can drop a boot of boxed books at a charity on the way, and Way Cheaper Wednesdays save you 15% on a Wednesday move. Get an instant quote and we will fold the donation run into moving day.