I’ve been making lunchboxes for kids for nearly 10 years now, from babies and toddlers, right through to school and work. I’ve used so many different types of lunchboxes and tried all the ways of organising lunchboxes you can think of.
And then there’s the unspoken expectations from other lunchbox makers with their perfectly-cut, varied and colourful foods, and the kids actually EAT IT! It can be exhausting!
Honestly, the first thing I think of when I know it’s school holidays coming up is “Yay, no lunchboxes!”.
But there’s a few things I’ve come to understand over the years that make my lunchbox process a little bit more organsied and stress-free which I wanted to share with you, so you can have stress-free lunchboxes too!
I make 4 very different lunchboxes every day, because my kids all have different tastes. I have a picky eater, a cautious eater, an adventurous eater, and an eat-everything eater, and if I tried to make their lunchboxes all the same I would end up putting half of it in the bin every day!
To be successful with your kids’ lunchboxes, make sure you’re filling them with foods and tastes they actually enjoy. Even if it’s 1 taste in 3 different ways, at least their tummy will be full!
I see photos of beautifully curated lunchboxes filled with filled rolls and wraps, and wistfully daydream about my kids eating them too. But then I come back to reality and realise that my kids would never eat them (well 1 might do now, but it’s taken a long time to get to that point!).
So what I do instead, is create deconstructed versions of the same thing. I might add ham, slices of cheese, cherry tomatoes or slices of tomatoes, cucumber slices (or chunks), and maybe even baby beetroot if that’s what the kids like.
This way they’re getting all the goodness of the filled roll and eating food that they enjoy. It’s a win in my books!
Pre-packing lunchboxes is a great way to remove the stress of packing lunchboxes every day, but I try to PRE-ORGANISE as well.
This means setting aside and packaging up the contents of each lunchbox for a whole week.
Here are some of the ways I pre-organise before the week begins:
Then when I go to put the lunchboxes together the thinking and planning is already done, and it’s just a matter of throwing them together at the time.
The headspace I gain from not having to think about it each time is huge.
What am I actually putting these lunchboxes? Well, a whole range of things. As I’ve mentioned before, I make 4 very different lunchboxes each day. And although it would be a whole lot less thinking to buy pre-packaged items, it would cost me a whole lot more.
Here’s an example of two different lunchboxes and their costs so you can see what I’m spending per day (they also show the extremes in my children’s eating!):
Note: these are just approximates according to current prices.
Yoghurt: $0.17
Strawberries: FREE from garden
Homemade Biscuit: $0.10
Apricots: $0.60
Pretzels: $0.10
Cucumber: FREE from garden
Sandwich: approximately $0.30
Boiled egg: FREE from chickens
Total lunchbox cost: $1.27
Cheese Toastie: approximately $0.60
Pretzels: $0.20
Crackers: $0.30
Homemade Biscuits: $0.10
Quesadilla: $0.80
Banana Chips: $0.30
Ham: $0.50
Carrot Slices: $0.05
Total Lunchbox Cost: $2.85
If you’re looking for some ideas for homemade lunchbox fillers, I’ve got a FREE guide that you can download right here!
This is probably my biggest lunchbox secret.
I LOVE efficiency, so if I can do something once instead of multiple times I’ll take that option any day of the week. This is where batching comes in.
I only bake or precook for lunch once a term, if not every six months. I have waaay too many other things to be doing than baking every single week!
And this way, I get to focus on one activity for a long period of time instead of trying to squeeze it into my gaps.
If you want to know more about batching and how I use it to get more done during my day and week, I’ve written a specific post on batching here.
Packing and organising lunchboxes doesn’t need to be stressful or be weighted down by expectation. With a little bit of thought and planning and my easy lunchbox ideas, the lunchbox burden will become a thing of the past!