Book sorting starts during the second week of collection. Shifts are usually 9am to 11:30am, 1pm to 3:30pm, and 7-9pm.

The Lead needs to set up a "sorting circle" before sorting starts. This is comprised of a number of large tables placed together in a rectangle and one table in the centre. The idea is for volunteers to bring a box into the centre of the area and distribute books into boxes for each book sale category. Books in terrible condition, old textbooks, bibles, encyclopedias (except children's) should all be thrown in to recycling.

The lead should also place signs all over the room with final locations of all categories.

The following should each have a sorting box:
- Children's story books (if possible, use one of the large library carts to save using boxes)
- Children's board books
- Children's leveled readers
- Children's Non-Fiction/Reference
- Children/Youth Chapter books (not part of a series)
- Children's chapter book series (ie Captain underpants, Geronimo Stilton, etc.)
- Teen Chapter books (ie Twilight Series)
- Puzzles/Games
- Fiction (multiple boxes separated by Author's last name, ie A-C, D-G, etc)
- Mystery (multiple boxes separated by Author's last name, ie A-C, D-G, etc)
- Food/cooking
- Coffee table books
- Self Help
- Diet
- Parenting
- Fantasy/Sci-fi
- Autobiography/True Stories
- Canadiana
- History
- Adult Humour
- French Children's books
- French Adult/youth
- French reference/non-fiction for children
- Art/Music
- Short Stories / Collections
- Poetry/Plays
- Comics
- Science/ Earth Sciences
- Politics
- Religion/Philosophy
- Social Commentary
- Classics
- Hobbies/Gardening
- Literary Criticism
-DVD's / CD's

When a sorting box is full, it should be labeled with a bright post it note with the category (staple this on or it might fall off), moved to its final location in the room, and a new box/bag put into the sorting circle.

An email should be sent to all sorters before they start so that they have some idea of what to expect when they start sorting.