Everything You Need for Packing School Lunches

We've got back to school on the brain since Olive starts first grade next week!  We're gathering her list of school supplies, updating her closet and making sure we are ready to start packing lunches.  I'm going to take a little blog break for the last few days of Summer.  I just want to enjoy our days together without worrying about any blog jobs.  I'll be back next week with lots of fun content for August :)

I really love packing lunches.  We've talked about this before, but I figured it couldn't hurt to revisit the subject this time of year.  I think of lunches as a HUG FROM HOME in the middle of the day.  I love packing Olive's favorite foods, taking the time to plan ahead and grocery shop to ensure her lunch will bring a smile to her face and to go the extra mile to make sure she has a healthy meal in the middle of her school day.

It just takes me a few minutes every night to pack her lunch and make it special now that I've gathered all the supplies.  You can do whatever works best for you, but this is the lunch box set up that works best for us.

I keep almost all of these things in a drawer in my kitchen island.  It helps keep me organized and helps me pack lunches quickly.  I either pack lunches right after I clean up dishes from dinner or pack them before I go to bed.  Mornings are such a busy time that I only leave one lunch making job for mornings: Filling up the water bottle.

I'm excited to tell you about our favorite lunch box supplies.  I'll link anything I can from Amazon at the bottom of this post.

Thermos Funtainer Water bottles.
They're 12oz and are AMAZING.  They're so durable, keep ice frozen for the entire school day, hold up well for 18+ months and you can buy replacement straws if they crack or break.  Ours have been dropped, well loved and used daily for 18 months and are still going strong.  We have four of them.  They are our very favorite water bottles for kids.  They also make great Thermos containers for food.

Yumbox Originals
We have used Yumboxes for 2 years and they've held up so well.  The initial cost is a little pricey for a lunch box, but knowing that they'll last you for YEARS makes it all worth it.  I hand wash ours to take extra good care of them.  The little compartments are so easy to fill, they are perfect for kids and they save you tons of $$$ since you won't be buying ziploc bags.  The Yumbox Original is our favorite style, but they also have a style called Yumbox Panino that holds a whole sandwich, a smaller Yumbox snack size and a Yumbox Tapas that is more for older kids/adults. 

Cookie cutters are a fun way to make sandwiches interesting.

Cat & Jack food picks are our favorite.  They're under $2 for each of these sets.

Glitter silverware.  Walmart has this set in stock right now and we save it for lunches.

Fun napkins.  These napkin notes came from Meijer.

Mini rainbow forks.  I found these at Hobby Lobby.

We bought a couple sets of these food picks last year.  They're great quality and work perfectly with the yumboxes.  Olive uses them as little forks to pick up her food.  She brings them home every day in her yumbox.  I wash them and we reuse them again and again.

Here's our lunch box set up.  I love the Pottery Barn Kids lunch boxes.  I picked this one up on a super sale for under $10 last Summer.  They run big sales at off times so keep an eye out for them.  I love these flat ice packs, lunch boxes that are insulated with a water bottle pouch on the outside and we always attach a hand sanitizer bottle to the lunch box.

What are your must have lunch box supplies??

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