Episode 79 - Tip Tuesday - You Don’t Have to Dread Packing School Lunches - Solutions to Make it Easier and Simplify the Process - Intentional Edit

Packing lunch to take to school and work doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore. Learn to pack lunch that your kids will actually eat and make the preparing and packing process easy with the strategies shared in episode 79 of The Intentional Edit Podcast.

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Full Episode Transcription (not edited):

Packing lunch to take to school and work. Doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore, learn to pack lunches that your kids will actually eat and make the preparing and packing process easy with this strategy shared in episode 79 of the intentional edit podcast. Hey friends, quick tips that make a big impact in your daily life are my favorite ways to implement systems around the house. I’ve been sharing easy strategies and my go-to organizing products for tip Tuesday on the intentional edit Instagram feed for a few years. Now I’m excited to bring it to the podcast with short episodes, answering your questions every Tuesday. If you want me to answer your questions, go to the podcast page on intentional, edit.com and submit your questions there. Let’s get started on this tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast. Hey there, thanks for joining me for this tip Tuesday episode.

(00:51):

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(01:42):

So thank you so much for those amazing positive reviews. I would love it. If you could leave one right now today, we are talking about lunches, hacking lunches, because it’s that back to school season. Some people have already been school for a month, which seems crazy to me. And some people aren’t starting still for another week or so, wherever you are, if you have kids and they bring lunch to school, there can be some stress around packing lunch. And I have a couple ideas for you based on this question that came in and the question said any ideas for packing lunches for three kids going to school. I dread it every morning and the kids complain about what I pack. I’ll take all the help you can give any food suggestions would be helpful too. So we have a couple things that come to mind first to make packing lunches, easier, get all the supplies you need and organize an area in your kitchen, where all that stuff is in one place.

(02:39):

So the containers, the baggies, the stre bags, all of that stuff should be in one area so that it’s easy to pack lunches. So you’re not running all over and navigating the entire kitchen and trying to figure out where these things are. And to find these things. If you have specific containers that go for school lunches, and each child has a lunch box, figure out where these things are to be stored when school is not in session, when the lunch boxes are not in school and then make that designated place for all of the containers for the food, put, have a place in your freezer for the place for the ice pack. All of those things go back there when they’re not being used and you can easily find them when you’re packing lunches, whatever containers you are using for your kids, make sure they can open those containers.

(03:27):

I have seen bento boxes and things like that, where there’s an amazing lunch inside, but the kids cannot open them on their own. And by the time a lunch aid gets around to helping them at school. Half of the lunch is over. So make sure your kids can open these things and close them on their own. A huge thing that is a big time saver is so forget about packing lunch in the morning, pack it the day before. So you don’t have to dread it in the morning after school or in the evening. When the kids get home, you have to unpack the lunch box, wash it out, clean it, whatever you have to do with all those containers, stick through in the dishwasher and then get the other ones and repack at that exact time. Repack it in that moment. When you are unpacking it, stick it back in the refrigerator, and then it’s ready to go for the next day.

(04:20):

You wanna take this to another level and make it even simpler, prepare things over the weekend and then have a lunch bin in your fridge and a lunch bin in your pantry so that you just have to grab those during the week, the weekdays and week afternoons and evening times seem to be busier. It’s easier to grab the little baggy with the grapes already in it. Then to every single day, get the grapes out, put the grapes in the bag, zip up the bags. You had to go find the bag, then pack it in the lunch. If you can prepare these things. Sometimes if sandwiches, if there’s nothing, that’ll make it soggy. You can make those ahead of time, depending on what your kids eat. If there’s different things you can do so that you can prepare things ahead of time. If you get a giant bag of chips at the store and disperse that into the little baggies that they’ll take in their lunch again, instead of doing that each day saves you time in the moment.

(05:14):

And it only takes a few minutes to prepare it over the weekend. If you have Boulder kids, they can do this kind of stuff, too. They can prepare, they can peel the oranges, put them in the stre bags, put the fruit in the bags, slice it up, whatever they need to do, and you will figure out what can last for a day or two. What can last grapes can be put in their individual bags and last all weeks, sometimes two weeks. And then when they’re packing lunches, the kids, if they pack or whoever’s packing, the lunches can grab from those designated bins that really simplifies and makes it go much faster. In terms of food selections, keep the options simple. Don’t over complicate offer lunch options that you know, your kids would normally eat things that they will eat and things that you would normally offer at home.

(06:04):

Because if you know, they will eat it, then they’re going to be fueled. And the whole reason you are packing lunch and you are giving them lunch and food to eat during the day is so they feel full. They have nutrition and they are fueled to do the rest of the school day to function at school, to learn, to retain the information. So of course you want to give them food with nutrition that will fuel them for the remainder of their day at school, until they can have their next meal. So keep the option simple and make sure that these are things that they actually eat. Think about what you feed them at home and have your kids brainstorm what they would like to have in their lunch boxes. They might throw out some things that you don’t approve of. It doesn’t mean you have to put them in there, but do a little brainstorming session with them.

(06:52):

Even if it’s in the car on the way home, because they are eating in a room full of other kids, eating every single day they observe and they see when something looks good to them. They notice that that child has that in their lunch. They can usually come up with some ideas that you might not have thought of, but you have to bring up the conversation. You have to start the conversation and ask them and see what their friends are eating. And then you will get some really good ideas from that too. I hope those strategies will help you not be so irritated by packing lunches and make it easier for you to do that all year long. Hope you’re having a great back to school season. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the intentional edit podcast. If you didn’t pause the episode at the beginning, can you please do that now?

(07:45):

And if you have loved anything on any episode of the intentional edit podcast, pause this episode, take a minute to leave a review. We’ll only take you a minute or two, do it right now. I wanna help you. And I love hearing from you and want to know what you found helpful in this show or even other episodes, and what things that you were doing to simplify your life and giving you more time to spend with your favorite people, doing things you enjoy doing. You can help me by leaving a five star rating. A quicker view is a social amazing, and that means that more people can find this podcast and start their journey to clutter free organization and simplify it living because they will find the podcast and be able to listen. I can’t thank you enough for taking a minute or two and leaving a review on apple podcast or wherever you’re listening to this episode right now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. See you back here later in the week.

(08:42):

Did you love this episode? Quick tips that make a big impact in your daily life are my favorite ways to implement systems around the house. I’ve been sharing easy strategies and game changing products for tip Tuesday on the intentional edit Instagram feed for a few years. I’m bringing that to the podcast. By answering your questions with actionable ideas and strategies for you to implement@homeemailordirectmessagemewithyourquestionsorsubmitthemontheintentionaledit.com pod page. What are you struggling with? Are you looking for product recommendations, home solutions? What is overwhelming you today? No questions are off limits. Seriously. I need to know what you are struggling with. So message me. Now. I’ll be answering one of your questions every week for tip Tuesday on the intentional edit podcast.

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Lauren is the founder of Intentional Edit, a home organization and lifestyle company focused on consciously editing to create efficient and organized spaces. Lauren believes that a functional home that looks and feels good has a positive influence on all aspects of life. Creating systems that allow for the home to function more efficiently, therefore, eliminating most of the clutter and chaos is her priority. While trends come and go organization is always in style!

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