Donations are a vital part of the Emporium’s success! We thrive on giving a second life to items that have been discarded, but donations also allow us keep our asking prices down as well, which we love to do! We live to find new homes and new lives for everything that is entrusted with us through donations. Now, starting in December of 2025, we have expanded our list of items that we are accepting as donations. This is not a complete list so don’t be afraid to ask if we’ll take other items that sound like it would be a good fit. We might just take you up on it!

Items accepted for Donation:

• Book

• Bookmark tassels

• scrapbooking/junk journaling paper

• stickers

• Wax for candle making

• Baby food jars

• Mason jars

• Yarn

• Embroidery thread

• decorated shirt boxes

• Tissue paper

• coffee mugs

• votive holders

• glue

• washi tape

• candle making supplies in general

• aromatherapy oils or candle scent oils

• picture frames

• small vases or bud vases

• bubble wrap

• ribbon

• water colors

• paint supplies

• beads

• blank greeting cards

• stencils

• stamps and/or ink

• VHS tapes with or without the case

• Board games with or without missing pieces

• Play card decks with or without missing cards

• Greeting cards/birthday cards/anniversary cards/holiday cards

• flashcards with or without missing cards

• mod podge

• buttons

• safety eyes

• cotton or acrylic stuffing

• Pom poms

• Bells

• Craft supplies

First, let’s talk about the books! Not only is this the biggest category, but also maybe the most complex. The simple answer is, we will accept any and all books you’d like to leave in our care. HOWEVER there is a chance that not all of those books will end up on our shelves. That is part of the reason why you will be asked to fill out a quick and simple form at the time of donation. This will allow us to ensure that you get all of your earned credit as well as let us know what you would like us to do with the books that do not go on our shelves. Would you like us to keep them and find another home/use for them? Or would you like to have them returned to you? Based on this decision, we’ll go through the books you’ve left with us and decide which books will be a good fit for our store based on condition, how many of those titles we currently have on our shelves and content. If we decide to add them to our shelves, well add the credit for that book in with the rest of your credit and put get it ready to be processed the rest of the way. If it’s not a good fit for our store, we will either return it to you, of find another home. Other home possibilities may include our craft supplies (if it’s falling apart), local little free libraries, donated to the library store or other local used bookstores or donated to other organizations in the area. If you choose to allow us to keep them, then we will make the decision as to the best fit for each book and do the leg work. Please be aware that these books will not be traded at Little Free Libraries for more inventory. Anything rescued from a Little Free Library will be added into a personal library.

When we’ve completed the sorting, we will contact you, most likely via email, with your credit and all of the necessary information to use your credit. You’re credit will be good for a minimum of 6 months (this length will be determined at the time by us but the most common amount of allotted time is 6 months). You are then free to adopt and add to your personal library with us!

But there are so many other items besides books on that list! What about those items?

That’s an excellent question, but also kind of a hard one to answer. The Emporium’s greatest fuel is a love for stories and a passion for sharing that love. That’s why we’re here. There are many ways to celebrate and share that love and, let’s face it, non-book items are important to keeping independent bookstores afloat (the profit margin for books is pretty low). The remaining items will be used to create art inspired by books. I know. It’s vague. But I can’t easily answer that question, either because so much of it depends on the supplies at hand, needs of the store and what’s in demand. But I will tell you what I can about those above mentioned supplies. Please keep in mind that 1.some of these items are used for more than one item, 2. This is only what we currently plan or expect to do with them at the time of this update (12/16/25) so this answer may change and it may change often. But here are some possibilities.

• Bookish inspired candles

• fun stuffies

• Bookmarks

• Wall art

• Flower bouquets

• Ornaments

• Book accessories

But, honestly, the possibilities are as endless as the creativity of those hand crafting these items and the supplies that we have at hand. Keep checking back to see what we create and adopt your favorites!