17 Insanely Clever LUNCHBOX HACKS for Packing School Lunches

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Packing lunch for the kiddies is a cinch when you use some of our very favorite lunchbox hacks! Some of these hacks will save you money, others will save you time. Some of them are just plain old FUN!

Easy Lunchbox Hacks!

There are several things that you can do to prepare for a great start to a new school year. You can follow the latest Back to School Deals, you can PIN this collection of school morning breakfast ideas, and then you can PIN this collection of lunchbox hacks!

Check out these 17 Clever LUNCHBOX HACKS to make lunch packing more efficient, to offer more of a variety of food options to your kids and to add some fun to the lunch presentation!

1. Make sandwiches at the beginning of the week and freeze until it’s time to pack the lunch. We have had lots of luck freezing hoagies and freezing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

2. Upcycle an empty, clean fruit cup by turning it into a cracker holder on a mason jar like this example from Soup Spice Everything Nice. Stick your favorite salad (tuna, chicken, egg, etc) in the mason jar and you have a very portable homemade lunch!

3. Use cookie cutters to cut fruit, cheese and other items into fun shapes. Don’t ask me why, but when you up the FUN factor, kids are more inclined to eat whatever you’re serving. I cut shapes with cookie cutters and sometimes I’ll break out the Fun Bites for sandwiches.

4. Make your own Lunchables using divided containers and cupcake liners. This example is from Krazy Koupon Lady.

5. Portion and bag lunch snacks at the beginning of the week so that mornings can be a simple “grab, fill lunchbox, go.”

6. Pickup a sandwich sealer and crust cutter and you can make some legit looking homemade Uncrustables. This example is from Glamper Life.

7. Make your own icepacks with a dollar store sponge and a sandwich bag!

8. Don’t discount the uses for a thermos! Send an array of non-sandwich foods that actually stay hot until lunchtime! Foods include soups and leftovers.. here are 25 hot lunch ideas for thermos funtainers!

9. Celebrating a birthday? Wrap the birthday kids’ lunch items to give them a fun surprise at school! This cute example is from Happy Home Fairy.

10. Pouch foods are super convenient and easy to pack. Buy a pack of reusable food pouches and make your own!

11. Put a rubber band around a sliced apple to keep it from turning brown! This example is from At Home with Real Food.

12. Stick lunch items on wooden skewers to switch up presentation and because, well, everything tastes better on a stick!! This example is from Skinnytaste.

13. Want to stick a cute note in your kids’ lunch but can’t seem to ever find a pen or paper in the morning? We love sending lunchbox notes – colorful, cheerful, easy. (Not to mention the kids LOVE them. Remember when I found that Lily had been saving every single note I sent her in her desk?)

When you visit your kid’s class… and find that she has saved every @lunchbox_love note you tucked in her lunchbox this year because she loves them so much. ❤️😍❤️ Love her!!
A photo posted by @mamacheaps on Jun 8, 2016 at 7:38pm PDT

14. I know my kids would love to find some Lunchbox Smoothies in their packed lunches like these smoothies from One Good Thing by Jillee!

15. Mason Jar Salads are a fun and colorful way to pack a salad. Swap to a plastic container (like a quart size plastic takeout container) if you prefer not to send glass.