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" The holiday season is full of easy opportunities to teach our kids about organizing. We can teach them to make lists, for one thing, just like Santa! Here are five different ways to show your kids how giving and receiving go hand in hand, and how organizing makes it all work better. Make lists for giving to others, not just your own wish list. Show your kids how to make a gift list for their family, friends, and teachers. You can show them the momentum that lists create and the joy you feel when crossing things off! You can find some easy, inexpensive, and even practical gifts to make together using these homemade food gift ideas and these simple crafts.  Planning errands means we get home to hot chocolate faster. Let kids feel empowered by having them help you plan your errands first before leaving the house. Show them your list of places and ask, &amp;quot;which should I do first?&amp;quot; Tell them it&amp;#039;s like a puzzle, and you want to drive the least amount of miles in the least amount of time. You can also let your child plug your errands into www.route4me.com to let it do all the work. What&amp;#039;s your favorite holiday food? Let&amp;#039;s make sure we buy everything for making it, and let&amp;#039;s make sure we don&amp;#039;t forget our other family members&amp;#039; favorite things too. You can make a holiday menu with your child, or even just a list of favorite holiday goodies to bake. Then show them how you have to plan what gets cooked first so it all comes out right on time. You can even show them how to make a grocery list and have them help you in the supermarket to cross things off. We have some helpful tips on making efficient grocery lists here, including our easy &amp;quot;Quadrant Method.&amp;quot; Out with the old, in with the new. Because Santa is coming with lots of new toys, we have to make room for them by clearing out the old toys we no longer enjoy. We have a chance to teach kids in a way they completely understand that storage is a finite thing, that there is a concept of &amp;quot;enough,&amp;quot; and that clearing out is a natural part of life, just like the seasons in nature. Helping others helps the planet. When you go through your toys, you&amp;#039;ll end up with a pile of unused items that can be donated. Donating is crucial to help the environment, as each year Goodwill\u00AE alone diverts 2 billion pounds of household goods and clothing from landfills! Before you take your child with you to a donation center, have them help you go through your coats and sweaters and other warm clothing to donate some of those as well. You can teach them that their donations help people stay warm while also helping your neighbors with job training, job placement, and other community services. (Don&amp;#039;t forget to go to an attended donation center so you can get a tax deduction receipt, too!) What teachable moments have you found this holiday season? Share in the comments! Lorie Marrero is the best-selling author of The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life, the spokesperson for Goodwill Industries International, and the creator of ClutterDiet.com, an innovative online membership program that&amp;#039;s provided affordable professional organizing advice to thousands of people in eighteen countries. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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