Great Organized Lunch Boxes

It's Hearts At Home blog hop day. Today's topic: Organizational Ideas. I think fitness and organization are the buzz words for blog posts in January.

Today I will share a cheap and easy way to keep the lunch boxes organized and the food from getting crushed. But first, if you didn't catch the earlier posts this month about organization, check out Hair ties, Headbands, and Headaches and also the post from Grandma, called Seriously Good Ideas for Around the House. The list amazed me with its innovation and simpleness.

Note: Several of the links below link to Amazon so you can see where you could buy these things, but I always buy them at our local big box store.

Now for that lunchbox.
Organized Lunch box tip #1: I don't like to use plastic bags for the lunch box. They clog up landfills and if  the lunchbox isn't hard or if there is a thermos in the box, things get squashed.  I spent months looking for the perfect little containers to put all the small serving sizes into. There are plenty of expensive options: Bento boxes and snap 'n lock type containers. But the sizes I found were always awkward to fit into the lunch box or the size I loved wasn't sold separately, only as part of a 10 container set. Plus, I didn't want to spend too much money, since I knew the girls would occasionally lose a container.

Solution: Ball freezer containers, 8 oz size.  A set of five costs about $3.00, not on sale. I bought two packages about three years ago. We still have six containers that haven't been lost or cracked. They fit perfectly in lunch boxes. They store chips, pepper strips, fruit (without leakage), even half a banana. And the girls love it when their chips aren't a pulverized mess. Plus I use these little guys all the time to actually freeze things too.

Organized lunch box tip#2: Reusable ice cubes. These make my girls happy; other kids think I am cool for packing them and sometimes they get pulled out when someone is injured and needs ice pack therapy. Plus they keep the milk and yogurt cold. Also, they are just filled with water so when the occasional ice cube springs a leak, it isn't a gel mess.

Organizational lunch box tip #3: Use the dishwasher. Have you ever noticed how nasty the corners of your kids' lunch boxes get? Actually, mine gets that way over time too. We use vinyl lunch boxes, the soft kind. Whenever we have a longer weekend break, I run them through a short cycle in the dishwasher. When the cycle is done, I dry them off, use a Q'tip to get the wet crumbs that are clinging to the seams and the finally they look clean again.

I found the Blog Hop post after the girls were gone
and lunches were packed. I had two freezer containers still at home
to photograph for you. One is straight out the freezer with the last of summer's
tomatoes and the other is full of peppers and carrots, ready lunch tomorrow.
I tossed the little reusable ice cubes in the picture too. Since we bring our own milk
to school, the ice cubes can be reused, don't dilute the milk but keep it cold! 

How do you keep lunch neat and organized?
Read other bloggers Jill Savage's and other bloggers' Third Thursday Blog Hop: Organizational Ideas for more inspiration. (Some day soon I will figure out how to use the link up widget)
Also sharing with Mama Loves. 

Simple, Cheap Organizational Tricks

January brings new hopes. And at my house, it always brings hopes of greater organization, especially after a pile of new things arrived under the tree. Organization is not a natural talent of mine. It's more of a natural struggle.

My grandma sent me a forwarded email called "Seriously good ideas for around the house." I often skip forwarded emails. They make me suspicious. But grandma doesn't forward emails often, so I opened this one. These tricks are awesome and easy. Most are ideas I have never thought of. Grandma was right, this forward is worth sharing. There was no source; no obvious author.  These are not my ideas and not my photos. But I think some of these idea will help with my January hopes. Which one is your favorite?

Why didn't I think of that?! Guarantee you'll be uttering those words more than once at these ingenious little tips, tricks and ideas that solve everyday challenges. Hull strawberries easily using a straw. Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings And scrapes. Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or Computer screen with WD-40. Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box By securing with a rubber band. Overhaul your linen cupboard, store bed linen sets Inside one of their own pillowcases and there will Be no more hunting through piles for a match. Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone & iPod In a bowl. The concave shape amplifies the music. Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags. Add this item to your beach bag. Baby powder gets sand off your skin easily, who knew?! Attach a Velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys. Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the floor. Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a stocking over the vacuum hose. Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting crosses into a box lid. For those who can’t stand the scrunching and bunching: how to perfectly fold a fitted sheet. (i'd have no patience trying to perfectly fold a fitted sheet.) Forever losing your bathroom essentials? Use magnetic strips to store bobby pins, tweezers and clippers, behind a vanity door Store shoes inside shower caps to stop dirty Soles rubbing on your clothes. And you can Find them in just about every hotel. A muffin pan becomes a craft caddy. Magnets Hold the plastic cups down to make them Tip-resistant. Gotta start saving the bread tags. Bread tags make the perfect cord labels. Bake cupcakes directly in ice-cream cones, so Much more fun and easier for kids to eat. Microwave your own popcorn in a plain brown paper Bag. Much healthier and cheaper than the packet Stuff. Install a tension rod to hang your spray bottles. Turn your muffin pan upside down, bake cookie-dough Over the top and voila, you have cookie bowls for fruit Or ice-cream. Freeze Aloe Vera in ice-cube trays for soothing Sunburn relief. Create a window-box veggie patch using guttering.