As we dive right into the back to school season, we have to think about those daily tasks like making lunches and setting your kids up with after school snacks. Organizing Your Lunch Box & Snack Station can be a life saver on busy mornings and afternoons. A few simple tricks will have your kids handling most things by themselves leaving you as the person who supervise and double checks instead of slaving in the kitchen.
Organizing Your Lunch Box & Snack Station
Store Lunch Boxes In Same Location Daily: So your kids aren’t scrambling to find things, make sure you create a standard place in your kitchen to store lunch boxes. Set up a space on your counter or in your pantry area to keep lunch boxes when not in use. We also recommend having a spare lunch box just in case one is forgotten or has something spill in it that may need to be cleaned.
{These are my favorite containers for lunches.}
Keep Utensils & Napkins Handy: One thing that is handy in your lunch station is to keep some plastic utensils and napkins at hand for your kids to quickly and easily add to their lunch boxes. All those extra ones that come with take out are perfect for this purpose. If you don’t have many of those on hand, keep a simple roll of paper towels to be torn and used for napkins along side a pack of inexpensive plastic utensils to add as needed.
Create A Snack Bin: This bin should be designated just for snacks. Some children have to pack a snack for school separate from their lunch. This is great for that or for after school snacking. Keep both a shelf stable bin, and a fridge bin. Things like cheese sticks, applesauce and fruit cups can be kept in a bin in the refrigerator. Granola bars, trail mix or similar items can be kept in the pantry bin.
Create A Lunch Sides Bin: These are items that would go alongside the main lunch entree. Cheese crackers, pretzels, baked chips, pita chips and similar would be in this bin. If you allow fruit strips, fruit treats or occasional candy in their lunch it could be stored here as well.
Prep Cold Items Weekly: This is an organization method that has really helped many moms streamline lunches and snacks for their children. While you can’t assemble everything, it is simple to take an hour on the weekend to prep things like veggie slices, fresh fruit or even bags of cheese and meat cubes to go into simple easy lunches for your kids.
Back to school lunch box and snack time doesn’t have to overwhelm you. Organizing your lunch box and snack station can make it easy for your kids to go through and make their own lunch in a few simple steps each morning. This along with your already streamlined and organized kitchen can make your life much simpler at back to school time.
{52 Weeks to a More Organized Home/Life}
If you have any of the hoarding tendencies we describe in this post, you may want to work on getting organized for the New Year. Getting organized and staying organized always seem to be on my list of New Year’s Resolutions. Would you like to join me in getting organized for 2015? Each week we will tackle one area of the home to help you get organized, reclaim your sanity, and save money since disorganization can lead to spending more or missing out on discounts.
Are you interested in actually getting organized for 2015? We have worked extensively on a series to help you get organized in 52 weeks. If you would like to receive these emails about how to get your home organized in 52 weeks, you can sign up to receive just ONE email per week. You can sign up at any time during the year without missing a beat.
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