As the Holiday gift-giving and receiving ratchets up, it can be hard, especially for kids, to stay focused on the true spirit of the holiday. That’s why I love this video on donating toys and clothes to charity by the amazing Audrey McLelland of MomGenerations.com.

I spoke with her briefly about the “behind the scenes” process of getting her two older sons involved in the process, and here’s what she had to say.

Q: How did you get your boys organized to pick out their own items to donate?
A: I took out about four bins of toys in our playroom that I knew they didn’t really play with that much anymore. I then explained to my two older boys (ages 5 and 6) that there are a lot of boys and girls out there who don’t have very many toys to play with and that they’d really love to get some good toys this Holiday season. I asked them each to pick out 2-3 toys that they really loved and giving it to another little boy or girl who didn’t have that many toys would really make them happy. And once I sort of framed it that way, they adapted to it and really dove in with gusto.

Q: How long did it take you from start to finish?
A: Well, the toy organization was really quick. That probably took about 15 minutes, tops – and we had a big brown box full of toys to give. The clothes took longer…

Q: So how long did it take you to organize the clothes for donation?
A: Well, with four boys, the amount of clothes we have is pretty ridiculous. For example, we had drawers overflowing with crewneck t-shirts. I mean, how many of those do you need per child? Certainly not 20! Saturday mornings are usually my time to organize and clean the house – so I set aside one entire morning, about 4 hours, with the goal of going through all of their drawers and pulling everything that no longer fit or that they didn’t need. I ended up donating six garbage-bags and 2 good sized brown boxes of items. It feels so great to have done it. I now have less clutter and feel good knowing that our unused items are going to new homes where they will be used.

What about you? Could you use a little de-clutter before the Holidays? How are you planning on giving back this season?