Back to School Organizing: Packing Lunches

I wanted to put together a couple of posts sharing the things we are doing to prepare for the new school year.  First, I shared how we are getting back into a new sleep routine and today, I thought I would touch on school lunches!

We do our best to pack the kid's their lunches since it's such a huge money saver.  Once a week, we allow them to snag up a lunch from school, since it's a special treat.  We have them look at the school menu ahead of time, pick a day to eat school lunch, and the rest are packed by the hubs and I.

This year I would love to be really organized when it comes to packing up lunches.  I am using the power of inspiration found on the www to do this.

First, these snack baskets which I first saw on ohdeedoh, are such a great idea!

And we already have been doing the same thing with dry snacks for quite some time.  But I wanted to borrow from the idea and use it to create a lunch making station in the fridge.  Something we could just easily grab that has all the things we use each time we make up lunches.

So I just took a cheapo plastic basket that we already had, added a quick laminated label, and filled it with all sorts of lunch making goodies!

This one basket holds cheese slices, lunch meat, cheese sticks, grapes, carrots, jelly, mayo, yogurt and ranch cups!

And tucks perfectly on a shelf in the fridge!

I am hoping that having all of their items in one easy to find place, it will make lunch making an easy breezy process!

When it comes to actually packing their lunches, this year I am giving these babies a try:

I picked up a four pack from Amazon, and love them so much I might just snag up a second set so we always have some clean.  They are really durable, I love that I won't need to waste plastic baggies and the best part is that it keeps all of their food separated, yet in one container!

Last but not least, to ensure that the kids aren't becoming tired of eating the same thing each day, I am going to use the power of Pinterest to keep things interesting.  There are all sorts of great lunch ideas for kids on there!  One of the best websites I have found so far is Lisa Storms.  Check out these adorable lunch ideas she has shared on her blog:

What other lunch making tips do you have?  How do you keep lunches interesting for the kids throughout the year?  How about ways to make the lunch making process easy peasy?  Has anyone else had a lunch station in their fridge that has worked, or do I dare say it, hasn't?