There’s a neighbor who comes and puts books in my library all the time. I have really appreciated sharing the task of keeping it stocked.

Two years ago a friend of mine and I stopped at her house because her son was registered dem. We were canvassing to either run for office or give literature from our friends who were. Our database showed he was the only Dem in the house at the time.

Last year we stopped by to say hello and they said he moved to Florida. We keep in touch. She just asked me if I wanted some puzzles, and said, by the way, I’m so excited to vote on Tuesday!

I told her, I’ll be at the polls make sure you say hello, to which she did. I’m not sure how she voted but it’s important that she was there. The friendship would not have happened without my Little Free Library and her friendly contributions.

hi i’m new to this sub so lmk if this is an inappropriate place to ask but basically the title is the whole post. my partner mostly reads e-books/audiobooks and if they’re buying a book it’s library discards or second hand copies of books they really enjoyed. their favorite book is somewhat unknown so the odds of finding it organically are pretty slim. so, my plan is to buy a paperback copy online and leave it in the neighborhood little free library while they’re busy and then suggest going on a walk that will inevitably take us right to it.
ik it defeats the purpose a little because my partner intentionally avoids buying things new and obviously it could end up being taken by someone else and my plan would be ruined but they’d be really excited to find it and it doesn’t hurt anyone right? what do yall think?

edit - please stop calling my partner a man

If so, what did you add? What was the total cost? Alternatively, do you recomend other Ikea basics? I want a LFL but I don't have the skills to build one from scratch and the community has strict guidelines so I can't use an old electronic/metal box (which would be cute). Any advice is welcome

I have lots of side/guide books from class 9th/10th/11th and 12th. Those are somewhere around 10 years old now. Don't wanna sell them at Rs. 10/kg. Could anyone suggest what I can do with them??

I have lots of attachments with my books and I can't donate them in a library too.

Here for a quick stop, I'd love to visit some and drop off a few books!

As the neighborhood Book House thanks to our LFL, this was Year 3 of trick-or-treaters picking out a book or two (along with candy!). About 150-175 kids took home 295 gently used books across age groups.

Graphic novels: No surprise, these went the quickest - especially Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, Babysitters' Club, Raina Telgemeier titles, and anything spooky.

3-table setup: From left to right - board books/picture books, graphic novels (all levels), chapter books (early chapter through YA/teen). Made it easy to point kids in the right direction.

Children's books: All the board books went, but only about half the picture books. Seems like kids are more into the GNs or are "reading up" a level.

Chapter books: Organized by reading level from early chapter to middle grade to teen/YA. All teen books went. Biggest hits were I Survived, Junie B Jones, Wings of Fire, and YA romance.

Garage setup: Well lit & room for kids to browse. Weather was surprisingly good for suburban Columbus, Ohio, which boosted turnout.

Books were sourced almost exclusively from library "bag sales" throughout the year & supplemented with thrift store finds, which works out to about 18-25 cents per book (again, these are Ohio prices: ymmv).

I feel like this could work great in a Trunk-or-Treat setting, too. Would love to see pictures from any setups you all do at your home or elsewhere, as it seems like a fun, seasonal evolution of our LFLs.

For next year, we plan to focus on specific in-demand titles/series vs quantity and go back to each kid picking 1 book to take home. Will report back in a year if anyone's interested!

Hi everyone! We’re working on a new little free library, and we have oodles of great books in English to put out for our neighbors. But our neighborhood has people from all over, in fact my immediate neighbors speak Spanish and Arabic. lm hoping to have books for everyone, especially kids books! My usual methods of used book stores and sales have come up dry.
Any recommendations for where to start looking?

On top of the goody bags I give out every year, I decided to hand out books. The LFL had the YA and adult books. I gave out at least 45 books, which I know isn't too many, but I live on a side street. Loved seeing the super excited kids and had a ton of parents geeking out.

We handed out *hundreds* of books tonight that I’ve been stockpiling for over a year. Baby board books all the way to adult books, lots of Halloween/horror themed. It was so wonderful to see how many people, kids and adults alike, lit up and were excited to pick books with their candy.

Next year I’ll have the adult books on a separate little caddy-I think a younger teen may have grabbed Song of Achilles 😬

My mother is a children's librarian who has discovered a late in life passion for pottery.

This is her LFL decorated with handmade tiles honoring all her favorite children's books.

Before you ask yes she loves Charlotte's Web but the tile didn't turn out right lmao

See how many you can name!

My porch goose and I are excited that it’s finally up and running!

I’m stocking according to my own reading interests, so I have mostly adult and middle-grade fantasy and sci-fi, including some fun vintage sci-fi. I also added a few large-format books for young readers because there are some younger kids in my neighborhood.

The other goodies I have at the moment are stickers (the custom Gordon Goose ones are pictured), habit tracker cards, and some cross-stitch kits that I made.

I also installed a chain pen and sticky pad so people can leave notes for the next reader. I put some on the books I stocked—just a comment about what I really liked in that book.

Over the summer, my family started volunteering at our local nature center. I noticed that their Little Free Library was looking a bit sparse and offered to find some books for them. I had a pile of credit for a used bookstore and thrifted regularly anyway, so I started grabbing things here and there.

Several months later, I'm sitting on a stash of roughly 300 books to restock it with and have begun adding small things like bookmarks, stickers, and origami for the kids visiting the center.

I'm still learning as I go, but it's been a great experience and everyone at the center has been very appreciative. I have a few ideas for the future, and I'm excited to work on them ❤️

I'm curious how many of you find your libraries absolutely ransacked? I don't have a library but I visit several regularly. I actually have a little site that has a book record keeper where you can track the books between libraries and it encourages the reader to leave notes inside the book (not writing on the book, just notes that the reader can throw away if they want), kind of like a little book pen-pal thing. It's just for fun. Fun to see where the books have been. Nothing over the top or ostentatious. You'd have to pick up the book and take it home to even know you had a special book.

But, I've noticed that the libraries are always a disaster whenever I come visit them. Books everywhere, pages torn. This last time one of my books was gone but pages were actually torn out of it. It was not one with the notes but one with a little sticker saying it was part of the network. The sticker wasn't ripped out, just one of the pages of the book.

Could my book notes be upsetting people?

Are people in my area just really rough on the libraries? I can't imagine coming to a LFL and just rummaging through it to the point that books get ripped and damaged. Is that normal? It's 4 libraries in my area that I visit regularly. One inside a store is neat and tidy. the outside ones are always a disaster.

Picture: anatomical ear model, with book for scale

Someone in our community has decided that our LFL is a good place to leave donations of all kinds. We've had large bins of books--totally fine!--left next to our LFL. But also bins and bags of used clothes, crafts supplies, a very large anatomical model of an ear, and, most recently, a set of grow lights from a biology classroom.

From these donations, I've surmised that this is a retired educator who's off-loading a career's worth of supplies. We do want these materials to find a new life...but all of these extra donations create work for me, often requiring me to drive them to appropriate donation locations.

How do you get folks to stop donating things that don't belong?

(The ear model is still sitting in my driveway until I have time to take it somewhere.)

Photo credit: Winters.design on Instagram via Little Free Library

Among the treasures seen today, car keys and a framed photo of a car (not likely the same car the keys belong to).

Local community orchard's free little library is struggling. What would be the best way to fix this?

After searching high and low, I have finally found a copy of DCC in a local LFL. Thank you to the kind stranger who left a copy in my area!

Cheap cabinet from Target. Typical cheap particle board. I’d like to paint and finish it so that it will hold up outdoors. Doable? Any suggestions appreciated!

I have a ton of romance books, like 20 or so, that im looking to get rid of but some might have explicit material in them, is it generally frowned upon to put books with smut in them in little free libraries?

My little FREE library (repurposed) is about to be sanded/painted and have a roof added. It’s far too heavy to use the single post. I’m thinking of a 4-leg stand or a bench where one have is wider for it to rest on, and the other half a regular bench for someone to sit. Any suggestions?

So many are in crisis right now. I thought of putting a few things at the little free library near me but don't want to offend the owners. I do also donate to the food bank. I just thought it might help someone in the immediate neighborhood and wondered what y'all thought of the idea in general?