4 Simple Tips To Get Organised And Make Fixing Lunches Easier
You know that awful feeling when your alarm hasn’t gone off, or you’ve dismissed it instead of hitting “snooze”…and you end up oversleeping?
Yeah…SO DO I!!!
There is nothing worse than running late in the morning and you find yourself desperately trying to figure out something you can put in your kids’ lunch boxes. If you feel flustered or end up buying school lunch because packing it seems like too much of a hassle, I have some tips to help you. These tips will help you get organised, and fixing lunches will become a breeze.
1. Create A List And Go Shopping
A good place to start is by sitting down with your kids, and together you can come up with a list of lunches they like.
This could include:
sandwiches
wraps,
or even homemade lunchable
But it doesn’t have to stop there!
If you add a thermos to the mix, you can pack reheated leftovers, homemade soup, and the like. The key is to find lunch foods and snacks that your kids will eat that are also easy to pack.
Make sure you have appropriate containers, and then head to the grocery store to pick up everything you need for the week. Don’t forget about snacks and drinks as needed. The list you’ve created should make this much easier. Once you have several different lunch ideas your kids like and will want to eat, you can simply rotate through them and make the ingredients part of your weekly shopping trips.
2. Prep What You Can As Soon As You Get Home
When you get home from the store, keep lunch foods out and see what you can do to prep things ahead of time. Instead of putting that bag of grapes away, go ahead and wash them and store them in little bags you can grab and toss in the lunch box. The same goes for things like carrots and even salads. Slice cheese as needed and whatever else you can prep as soon as you get home.
3. Pack Lunches The Night Before
Mornings are busy enough as it is and not always the perfect time to have to worry about packing lunches. Try making them the night before. Get the kids involved and have them help with their lunch prep and clean-up after. You can store cold items in the fridge and have everything else sitting in the lunch box ready to go. It won’t take long to get into a rhythm of preparing lunches while cleaning up after dinner. You’ll start to appreciate this new habit in the mornings when you only need to grab a couple of things from the fridge and toss them in the lunch boxes. There’ll be no more panicking and rushing around trying to figure out what to pack!
4. Get In The Habit Of Cleaning Lunch Boxes As Soon As The Kids Get Home
To make lunch prep even easier, I would recommend getting the kids into the habit of cleaning out their lunch box as soon as they get back from school. Even the youngest can help with this. Have them toss any uneaten food and bring the containers to the sink to be washed. Older children can easily clean their own containers, while you’ll probably have to do the washing for your youngest. Having everything clean and ready to go will make it easier to pack the new lunches later on in the day.
It’s really not a big chore for any age kid to take on, and it gets them into a good routine…Plus it teaches them discipline.
Stick to these tips; it won’t take long to get into an efficient lunch packing routine that will make it a snap. Don’t forget to involve the kids and put them in charge of the preparations. Not only will this make your life easier in the long run, but it will also give them a sense of ownership over their lunch.
I’d love to hear what you do for your kids’ school lunches.
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