Chichester Books Collected Free — No Trip Required

Chichester is a city that rewards a slower pace — Georgian streets, an ancient cathedral, independent shops tucked into quiet lanes — but even here, bookshelves have a habit of quietly overflowing. Whether you’ve been here for decades or recently arrived, a house move, a loft clear-out or simply the realisation that the spare room has become a storage room tends to focus the mind. Anglo Doorstep Collections offers a completely free doorstep pick-up for books and media across Chichester and the surrounding area, so you don’t have to haul boxes across town or hunt for a suitable drop-off point.

Paperbacks, hardbacks, children’s picture books, cookbooks, reference works, CDs, DVDs and music albums are all welcome — as long as they’re dry and in a reasonable, readable condition. Whatever’s prompted the clear-out, passing your books on to new readers is far more rewarding than watching them gather dust, and it costs you nothing at all.

Book a Free Collection

How the Collection Works

What We Collect

There’s no minimum quantity — a single bag of paperbacks is just as welcome as several boxes from a full study clearance. Pack items in small, manageable bags or boxes rather than one heavy crate, and we’ll do the rest. We accept:

Serving Chichester and the Surrounding Area

Chichester is a compact city of around 27,000 people, but its community extends well into the West Sussex countryside and coastline beyond. We collect from households right across the city — from the streets near the cathedral and city walls to newer residential areas on the outskirts — and our coverage reaches out to Bognor Regis, Selsey, Midhurst and Petersfield too. If you’re a little further out, it’s still worth checking availability when you book.

Spring and early summer tend to be particularly busy times for donations in and around Chichester, as families begin seasonal clear-outs and properties change hands ahead of the summer market. It’s also when children have outgrown a shelf-load of picture books and early readers almost before anyone noticed. If you’re working through a whole house — perhaps downsizing or helping an older relative reorganise — splitting the books into several smaller, clearly packed bags rather than one unwieldy crate makes collection day straightforward for everyone. A heads-up: we’ll send your time slot through the evening before your collection day, so you know exactly when to leave items out.

Who Tends to Book

One Visit Covers It All

Books and media are rarely the only things you want to move on. Set them out alongside clothes, toys or kitchenware and our driver collects everything in a single trip — no need to arrange separate visits or make multiple journeys yourself. We work alongside Chichester District Council in supporting responsible reuse across the area, helping to keep West Sussex tidier and reducing the kind of roadside fly-tipping that appears when unwanted items have nowhere useful to go.

We also serve nearby Bognor Regis and Petersfield — you’ll find the full picture on our collections near you page.

What Happens to Your Donations

Every readable title goes to the charities and reuse partners we work with across West Sussex, where books are resold or passed directly to new readers in the local community and economy. A large percentage of proceeds goes to charity, helping raise vital funds for good causes — so clearing a few shelves at home has a genuine impact well beyond your own four walls. Only items too damaged to pass on go for recycling, and even that is very much a last resort.

There’s a real environmental case for donating rather than discarding, and it’s particularly relevant in a city as environmentally conscious as Chichester. When books, CDs and DVDs end up in landfill, the paper, card and plastic they contain break down over time and release methane — a potent greenhouse gas. Choosing to donate avoids that entirely. Based on published UK estimates from sources such as WRAP, reusing books and media means no new pulping, no fresh print runs and no transport of newly manufactured replacements — saving both water and CO₂ compared with producing copies from scratch. Across a community of around 27,000 people, with more in the surrounding towns and villages, the cumulative effect of donating rather than discarding genuinely adds up — and it helps keep Chichester’s streets and green spaces cleaner in the process.

“In a city that values its heritage and its environment, keeping books and media in circulation rather than sending them to landfill makes a real difference — for local good causes and for West Sussex as a whole.”