I must admit, I am slowing down a bit on my decluttering and organizing around here. Part of it is my ambition fizzling out and part of it is the kids being home more. Nothing ruins a good cleaning spree like a phone call about an early dismissal. Speaking of school, my kids go through little spurts where they like to pack their lunches. I used to encourage lunch packing quite a bit more, but frankly, I just got burned out. One year of packing three custom lunches and a snack every day wore me down. I have more of a "whatever" attitude about it now.

I still have a lot of lunch packing supplies- plastic containers, thermoses, etc. They can trash a cupboard pretty quickly. In a perfect world, I would have an entire area just designated to lunchbox stuff where everything is in one place, but my kitchen just isn't set up that way. I gotta' make do.

So, of course, I resorted to plastic bins from the Dollar Tree. They corral most of the plastic containers. I also sometimes use old food storage containers with missing lids. The white one holds my plastic mason jar lids.

lunchbox supplies organization

I like to use the plastic sandwich boxes because their sandwiches don't get smashed. The XS size Glad containers are a perfect snack size for elementary lunches! Also, a friend of mine sent reusable pouches for applesauce when my daughter had sever poison ivy all over her face and lips and couldn't open her mouth wide enough to eat much.

how to organize lunchbox containers

The older girls conned me into buying some cute sectioned containers that they don't really use.

lunchbox container organization

Some of the lunchbox goodies have to be stored in the fridge. I love the plastic baskets with the handles in front since I am short (they have them at our local Dollar Tree in cute colors right now!) It keeps everything in the fridge so much neater!

how to organize refrigerator shelves

The pink basket holds little things for lunchboxes, like yogurt cups and snacks. They would be a mess left loose in the fridge and I keep them up high or they will be gobbled up really quickly in this house. Remember those little Glad containers from a few pictures up? Well, those make perfect DIY jello cups! I also like to make my own granola bars and put them in snack bags.

homemade lunchbox snacks

The white basket is for jelly. We always have an assortment. (See THIS post for jelly recipes!)

how to organize jelly jars

I keep the soup thermoses with the water bottles (see HERE), but maybe I should pitch some of those divided containers and move them. The water bottles need to be kept at a more convenient spot because we use them more often. The actual lunchboxes are stored on the bottom shelf of my bakers rack in a big wire basket. I keep them low so the kids can put them away easily- they are supposed to empty their lunchboxes as soon as they get home.

These are just a few practical things that have helped to corral the mess. You can see my other kitchen organizing posts HERE and HERE.

If you have any organizing tips, I would love to hear them! I am always trying to make things more efficient!