Shout out to all the families out there in the midst of the annual back-to-school angst fest! Tax Free weekend, illegally long class supply list, sign-ups for ALL the extracurricular activities, meet the teach, and on and on….. Let’s take away at least a bit of your daily stress from herding munchkins here, there and… yawn (momma needs a nap)! One of the biggest stressors can be the early morning rush to get ready, get them fed and out the door. It’s all about school year refrigerator organization!
We have come across some terrific ideas for getting your refrigerator organized into your very own, personal vending machine. We’re going to turn this into a Grab-n-Go style venue and get the kids involved in helping pick their snacks and food items and getting your refrigerator all set up. They’ll enjoy being part of this cool idea!
First we need the items for our new refrigerator system! Here are a few healthy foodie ideas and all are very kid friendly:
- Cheese sticks
- Cheese slices
- Greek yogurt / Go-gurt
- Edamame
- Cottage cheese
- Hard boiled eggs
- Hummus
- Fruit: grapes, berries, clementines, pineapple chunks, peach slices, apple or pear slices (preserve cut up apples by adding a little bit of lemon juice to the bag)
- Vegetables: Carrot sticks, celery, zucchini sticks, snap peas, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes
- Juice boxes, milk, small water bottles
On to organizational supplies. Get three or four washable plastic bins for your food items and some labels and colorful markers, maybe even fun stickers. Be creative and colorful! Make sure you’ve got plenty of small containers on hand as well to divvy up the above food items into lunch size portions ahead of time. You may decide to use different colors for each child to keep fussiness at a minimum during the grab and go. We also came across the cute idea of putting placemats on your refrigerator shelves. Handy if there’s a spill or the refrigerator just needs a good cleaning. Take them out, wash them, and put them right back in! Grab some different holiday themes or favorite cartoon character themes to keep it fun and creative. This would be a fun task for the kids to shop for and help with before each new school week begins.
Use one of the new bins for cold stuff like yogurt, cheese sticks, cottage cheese, etc. Another one can hold your little containers or bags of pre-sliced fruit and veggies. Putting the juice boxes and other drinks into a third bin can help you keep track of the libation situation. If your kiddos like sandwiches, maybe use a fourth bin for sandwich fixings and such. Put yet another colorful bin on the cabinet full of room temp snacks like granola bars, cookies, crackers, etc. Make sure the loaf of bread is also out and easy to reach for the sandwich crew.
To help your new refrigerator organization system, make sure their lunch boxes are lined up on the counter, ready to fill. Letting them make their own lunches is good for them and helps your morning run more smoothly. Well, until little Liam and sister Mia both reach for that last cheese stick at the same time…. To help keep THAT from happening, maybe put a colorful magnetic shopping pad on the front of your refrigerator and encourage the kids to write down what they’d like when something is running low in the bin system. Or, for the progressive parents among you, your second grader can probably text you hieroglyphic emojis for her preferred grocery list.
Bonus! A really fun and crazy simple after school snack idea: Go buy a plastic shoe organizer and hang it on the inside or your pantry door. Fill the pockets with all the after school snack gloriousness your kids love so all they have to do is open the door and grab one. How about that snaction!
We’ve all been there in the back to school frenzy. Hopefully some of these ideas will help with your blood pressure and give your kids some creative license and responsibility with their lunches and snacks! Keep calm and school on!
Remember, if you find you are in need of professional service with any of your household appliances, please give us a call and we’ll send one our technicians right out!
Thank you for letting our family help yours!