My favorite gifts to give are those that make a whole bunch of people happy at the same time. I think you’ll like this idea too, which is why I’ve created the Incredible Buy One Give One Holiday Gift Guide.

I love BOGOs! BOGOs are companies that give someone in need a free gift every time one of their items is purchased. Tom’s seems to have started this practice by producing canvas shoes that were sold as two-fers. If I bought a pair of TOMS, TOMS would give a pair for free to someone who was shoeless. Today, a lot of BOGOs offer a wide variety of products. I’ve compiled the best of them into this incredible Buy One Give One Holiday Gift Guide.

Buy One Give One Holiday Gift Guide

TOMS – TOMS shoes has provided over 60 million pairs of shoes to children since 2006, thanks to the many shoe purchases the company has inspired.

You can still shop for shoes, but TOMS now also donates other essentials thanks to the shopping you do with the company. Here are a couple of other reasons why we included TOMS in our Buy One Give One Holiday Gift Guide.

If you buy the company’s sunglasses, TOMS will donate prescription glasses and help fund sight-saving surgery.

If you buy a bag of TOMS Roasting Co. Coffee, you’ll help fund 140 liters of safe water–a week’s supply–to a person in need.

Purchases of TOMS Tote Bags like the one pictured here support the training needed to help provide a safe birth where conditions are risky.

DIFF Charitable Eyewear – DIFF (as in make a “diff”erence) is built on the principle that designer eyewear should be socially conscious as well as affordable and fashionable.

That’s why, for every pair of sunglasses purchased, a pair of reading glasses is donated to someone in need.

Through their partnership with Eyes on Africa, DIFF has provided the gift of sight to over 20,000 people.

They also partner with Student Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity, a partnership that in 2017 helped 10,000 people worldwide.

Better World Books – This bookseller collects and sells books new and used, then uses the profits to fund literacy initiatives worldwide.

They also commit to matching every purchase on their website with a book donation to someone in need, in a program called Book for Book.

They conduct book collection drives on over 2,300 college campuses and partner with 3,000 libraries, too.

So far, the company has converted more than 250 million books into over $24 million in funding for literacy and education. In doing so, they’ve diverted more than 250 million books from landfills.

Here’s another benefit: every order shipped from their warehouses is carbon balanced with Green-e Climate certified offsets.

Bluer Denim – For every pair of jeans you buy from this company, you can donate an old pair.

Once Bluer receives them, they’ll give you a $15 credit and send your old jeans to someone who needs them.

It’s a great way to recycle your jeans and reduce the carbon impact of producing and shipping a new pair.

Here’s another advantage to Bluer. They’re made in America: designed in Portland, Oregon; made from cotton grown in Georgia and denim milled in North Carolina, with rivets and zippers coming from Kentucky. The jeans are cut, sewn, washed, and hand-finished in Los Angeles using what the company says are eco-friendly ozone laundry processes.

Good Spread – I always give friends and my kids food for the holidays, so when I heard about Good Spread being a BOGO company, my first reaction was, “Bingo!”

Good Spread includes organic unsweetened peanut butter, organic honey banana peanut spread, organic chocolate pretzel peanut spread, and organic salted honey peanut butter.

The ingredients are non-GMO, Palm Done Right, and organic certified.

Where does the BOGO come in? When you buy a jar of Good Spread, you send a treatment of MANA Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food to a malnourished child. As the company’s motto goes, “Four delicious organic flavors to choose from. One lifesaving mission!”

WeWood – “You buy a watch. We plant a tree.”

What’s not to like about that BOGO approach?

Since 2011, WeWOOD, a company based in Florence, Italy, says it has planted over 500,000 trees.

Its goal is to plant 1 million total by 2020. The company works with Trees for the Future and American Forests to “help restore Mother Nature one watch at a time.”

The watches are made from exotic remnant hardwoods minus any toxic chemicals.

BOGO Bowl – This company’s name says it all. And the company says it up front.

“You buy a bag and we give a bag to a pet in need.”

The pet food manufacturer says it doesn’t use byproducts, artificial colors or flavors, or corn, wheat or soy as filler. It’s good dog and cat food in a variety of formulations to help animals maintain a healthy weight and develop healthy bodies, starting with kittens and puppies.

The company helps pet pantries, foster-based programs, animal shelters, and rescue centers.

We’re looking for more BOGO companies to add to our guide. If you have any recommendations, please list them in the comments below or on the Big Green Purse Facebook page.

Happy holidays, and thanks for shopping BOGO!

NOTE: Some of these entries contain affiliate links. We’ll make a teeny tiny commission of you use the link when you shop, which helps us continue to bring you the green expert content you need to live the greener life you want. Thanks!

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Clutter drives me crazy almost any time, but it seems like it gets worse during the holidays. We’re working with the charity Boat Angel, which accepts boat and car donations, to offer what we think are the 6 easiest ways to declutter before the holidays hit.

They’ll help reduce the stress of trying to deal with all your anxiety-causing, space-wasting “stuff”  by helping you focus on what you can get rid of (the first secret to decluttering), while organizing what you want to keep.

1) Start With Your Clothes – Keep What You Love and Wear; Donate the Rest

Clothing is one of the biggest sources of clutter in my home and maybe yours, too. We have a tendency to hold on to clothes we’ve outgrown or whose styles have outgrown us. Little wonder that all those shoes, dresses, shirts, pants, sweaters, scarves, coats and jackets end up in big piles at the back of our closets, or falling off hangers, or stuffing up drawers.

Here’s how I keep my clothes clutter under control.

At the beginning of every season, I make a big pile of the past season’s clothes that no longer fit, that are no longer stylish, or that I just don’t like any more.

For example, with winter arriving, I’ve put the fall season sweatshirts, sweatpants, jeans, flannel shirts, blouses, skirts and dresses I never or barely wore into a pile. That created room in my closet and drawers for the winter clothes I think I want to wear.

Next, as I put my winter clothes away, I’m looking at them critically and trying on some things before they automatically go into a drawer or get hung up.

From that lot, I also put aside the apparel I just don’t think I’m going to wear anymore.

It probably takes two hours to go through my closet and all my drawers.

I make the time go faster by playing some music and having a cup of tea on hand to sip as I sort. When all is said and done, I have more room, my clothes are better organized, and I have a bag full of garments to donate to Goodwill or the local thrift store.

Since Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and Purple Heart all do pick-ups, I simply call them to say the goods are ready, then put them on my porch and voilá, they’re gone before I know it.

2) Work Room by Room, One Room at a Time

The same sorting process works well in every room in the house. In the kitchen, pull out items from the pantry you no longer use. Donate old housewares to a community kitchen or half-way house. Donate unopened food to a food pantry.

In the garage, collect excess tools and sporting gear, and consider whether now is the time to donate your car, boat, trailer or motorcycle.

A quick internet search will provide you a list of groups that are always looking for these types of goods and will allow you to even donate a boat without title.

3) BOGO – Buy One, Give One

Once I’ve made room in closets, cupboards and drawers, the trick is to keep them from filling up again. I make a practice of trying to give away the old version of something when I replace it with the new. It helps to keep a “donation bag” handy to put the old items into, rather than stuff them in some out-of-the-way place.

4) Recycle electronics

Among the biggest sources of household clutter are old electronics. Smart phones, computers, lap tops, tablets, printers, fax machines, cables, chargers – who doesn’t have a drawerful of electronic clutter they’d love to see emptied? Fortunately, electronics are as easy as clothes to unload, since pretty much every big box store that sells them also takes them back. Staples, OfficeMax, and BestBuy all make it easy by having drop-off boxes so you can just walk in and leave your old gear. Just make sure to swipe the data drives and remove the sim cards before you do.

Here’s our post on 15 Things You Can Recycle to Ease Christmas Clutter Clean-Up

5) Cancel Catalogs

Retail catalogs are a constant source of clutter in my home. They’re also a scourge on the planet because they want so much paper! You can cut that way back by refusing to provide your address or phone number when you shop in person (of course, if you buy online, you’ll have to provide your address). Another option is to call the 1-800 number provided in the catalog and ask the operator to remove your name from the company’s mailing lists. This will only take a couple of minutes. You can also sign up with CatalogChoice, and they’ll help you cancel the catalogs you no longer want to receive.

6) Give Everything a Place

Once you’ve gone through your home and removed the unnecessary and unused bits and pieces, you can organize what’s left.

But don’t be random about it. Put shoes in an over-the-door hanging shoe rack. String ties on hangers or tie racks. Use shelves so you can see what you have where.

Visit the Container Store to get ideas for the best way to organize your belongings, and pick up some baskets, shelves, or boxes if you need them. Clear boxes and bins are best for seeing what’s inside, but you can also label them on the side or top to keep track of their contents.

By the way, if you have kids at home, make sure you teach them to keep their clutter to a minimum, too. Even when they’re still quite young, kids can be taught to place dirty clothes in hampers, hang their back packs in a mud room, put their toys in the toy box, and place art supplies in a container when they’re finished using them. Setting aside 15 minutes before bedtime for everyone to put away their things is a good way to get the entire family involved.

Don’t forget to ask the kids to recycle and donate the toys, books, and gear they no longer use.

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