school is back in session & lunch packing tips

I popped up out of bed this morning full of joy and excitement because school started today!

Although, now that my kids are in school, I am a little sad. Really sad actually. I miss them terribly! As I am sitting here typing this I am laughing at myself, because for the last week I have been eagerly awaiting today and now that today is here I am not at all feeling the way I thought I would be feeling.
Oh well…on with the day we go!

I would like to share the newest organizational tool I am trying out in my house, I actually got the idea from this post at Iheart Organizing, she is so full of great ideas!

I revamped my already snack bucket that I keep in my pantry.

Now it has one side for deserts and one side for snacks. In my fridge I have two plastic containers, one for fruit and veggie snacks and one for lunch stuff, everything in the containers is prepackaged by me and ready for a quick grab.

I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS!

I knew that this year was going to be a bit crazy in the mornings since my kids are now in different schools and we have to leave 45 minutes earlier than last year, so this idea makes the task of making lunches about 6 minutes faster and allows the kids to pick their own lunch goodies. Instead of having to drag each individual item out to make the lunches all I have to do is grab the basket. After I make the sandwiches I put them in the lunchboxes and let the kids grab their own desert, fruit or veggie, snack and drink.

How I make it work:On your grocery day, prepackage in small zip lock bags individual serving sizes of the goodies your kids like to eat. Fill small plastic containers with your condiments, I filled mine with ranch, mayo, mustard and cream cheese. In one basket place all your fruit and veggie snacks with side dressings in the small containers for easy grabbing. Fill the other basket with all your sandwich stuff and containers filled with the condiments. And then in the pantry basket fill it with the individually packaged dry goodies and deserts your kids like to snack on. It took me about 30 minutes on Friday (my grocery day) to get everything packaged and in the bins. I can happily spare 30 minutes once a week if it saves me 6 minutes at 5am in the morning! Just fill your baskets every time you go to the grocery store and this should be a huge success!

Do you have any early morning lunch tips or tricks to share?