About us
A local business built around books.
Revolve Books was started by Ethan Smith, a lifelong Cleveland-area reader who kept seeing the same story play out: a family sorting through decades of accumulated books after a downsize, a move, or a loss — with no good option for what to do with them.
Donation centers turn away large loads. Junk removal companies bill by the truckload and send books straight to landfill. Meanwhile, thousands of good books deserve to stay in someone's hands.
Our mission
Keep books in circulation, and take the weight off families.
We're independent, local, and book-and-media-focused — not a franchise and not general junk hauling. Every collection we pick up is sorted by hand so that as many books as possible end up back in circulation through resale, donation, literacy partners, and community reuse.
Our goal is simple: keep good books out of the landfill, and make the process of letting them go feel less like a burden and more like passing them on.
Our process
What happens after we load the boxes.
A pickup isn't the end of the story. Every collection is sorted by hand, book by book, and routed to wherever it will do the most good — a small circular economy for books, run locally.
1. Sorted by hand
We go through each box and separate resale-worthy titles, donation-ready books, and anything too damaged to pass on.
2. Resold to fund the service
Collectible, academic, and in-demand titles are resold. That's what keeps pickups free for families — no truckload fees, no charge for volume.
3. Donated to community partners
The rest goes to Northeast Ohio literacy programs, schools, Little Free Libraries, senior centers, and neighborhood nonprofits.
4. Responsibly recycled if unsellable
Water-damaged, moldy, or badly worn books are sent for paper recycling — not landfilled. Books belong with readers; when that's no longer possible, the paper stays in use.
Local, independent, Northeast Ohio
Rooted in Cleveland.
We live and work in the same neighborhoods we serve. That means shorter drives, more flexible scheduling, and a real face and phone number behind every pickup.
Have 100+ books that need a good home?
100+ Books · Downsizing · Families · Estates