Six Little Hearts: Smash Lunchboxes Review - Moving Food in Cool Ways! A Back to School Special...

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Smash Lunchboxes Review - Moving Food in Cool Ways! A Back to School Special...

We interrupt your school holiday fun to discuss the dreaded back-to-school needs. (I know, I know, profuse apologies.) The thought of another eleven or so months of school-day drudgery is almost too much to bear as the sun beams down on us pyjama-clad peeps on vacation.

It's currently 11.30am and this family are all dressed in our jammies. No apologies there. We've basically been jammified for the last four blissful weeks. Long may it last! This mama just ain't getting dressed!

So tell me, how are your school preparations going? Are you as organised as me? Truthfully, there's not a lot of truth at all to that last question. Generally speaking, I am still organising my back-to-school needs in term three of any particular year.

Thankfully this year, Smash Enterprises posted us out a gigantic collection of school lunchbox needs and I am so relieved that a huge chunk of my back-to-school woes have been wiped from my list of 'stuff to do that I can't be bothered doing.' (Who am I kidding, I don't even have a list, that would be far too practical and grown-up.) I do have a lot of stress about it though.

I will admit to being a self-professed lunchbox and plastics-ware nerd. I love shopping for this stuff and I like getting all touchy-feely with it at the stores. It's just as well too, because my six kids positively excel at losing their personal items. Lunchboxes and drink bottles are their specialty in fact. Despite the excessive naming and nagging on my part, they still manage to come home minus an item or two each week. Often, each day. It drives me insane but I have also managed to get all-Zen about it.

I've a feeling that they will be a little more careful with their new Smash goods because it's all nifty, pretty and practical. Much more attractive than the practical and plain stuff mama would buy (while bearing in mind the loss factor).

With so many new lunchboxes to squabble over, I put it to the kids to choose their faves for a bit of a photo shoot.

Three year old Celeste chose this fashionable polka-dot Insulated Lunch Bag with Blue iQ Smart Lining. (Darn too, because that's one that mummy likes in particular. Just as well there's another in my carton.) It's roomy and trendy and has loads of space to store containers and bottles while remaining quite compact. Sssh! I shall snaffle-it from her when she's not looking and swap it for one of the fab kiddy ones instead!

Smash have a great selection of containers from their Dining at Work range. These are perfect for soups and salads and grown-up eats and come in a nice collection of happy colours too, to cheer-up bleary grown-up days. Slip a few of these inside your lunch bag and save yourself some dollars over buying your food daily.

Being a boy and a small one at that, seven year old Taite (below), quite naturally gravitated towards the mega-lunch bag - the Smash Enterprises Crosscut Insulated Lunch Bag with Blue iQ Smart Lining. (Blue iQ is a smart-lining manufactured to the highest of international food standards and it's free of nasties.) This thing is huge and is of such a good size that you could pack a bit of a picnic in it for a day trip.

Taite especially loves his new light-up Play, Rad, Now kids' lunch bag. It's a keeper. (Ha! Get it?)There's a gorgeous girl one too, with Live, Play, Love pasted on it and this also lights-up. The toddler nabbed that one pretty fast and filled it with pencils, then ran off with it. Apologies for no image of this one. It's lost in the disaster of a house I am keeping, (well, not keeping really), while the kids are on vacation.

While on the topic, these do make great pencil cases and pretty good carry containers for taking play on the move. Popping a collection of Lego, for example, in one of these, would be a great way to keep it all together securely.

Tap it and it flashes! Available at Big W RRP $15.

Ruben, Ruben, Ruben... He's nine. He has high ideals and expectations. He wanted everything in our parcels from Smash! Who cares about the other 5 kids...

Whoa, slow down kid! One really only needs one lunchbox. (Okay, a second and a third in a few weeks' time when you've lost the first few, is reasonable enough.)

Ruben's choice is actually one of my favourites from our boxes of Smash goodies. It's enormously practical for kids and it's also compliant with many schools' militant rubbish-free lunch policies.

Available at Woolworths and Big W. Prices start at $13.99.

This lunch box is from the Smash Nude Food Movers range and this is the Rubbish Free Enviro Box. It is BPA free. God-forbid, never again will we be harassed by the school for sending a piece of food in a wrapper! Phew!

Inside this all-in-one lunch keeper, are two screw-lidded pots for nibbles and yoghurts and a sandwich seatbelt. There's also a divided compartment for fruits and biscuits etc. Everything is destined to stay fresh and sorted and importantly, not squished. (Therefore, hopefully consumed too!)

Another of Ruben's favourites, a simple lunch bag from the Nude Food Movers range
with a carry handle, pocket and Blue iQ lining.

Containers galore! Seriously, how many of these things do you need per child? Way more than you think! Make sure you buy at least two of everything per child and label everything well. Smash have some true greats that are purpose-built for some of your kids' favourite eats, like crackers and dip, soups, yoghurts and sandwiches. I will be labelling these like a mad-woman in an attempt to keep every single one of them in our possession! One can only dream... (At least I will always have this image!)

Assorted Smash Enterprises lunch keepers available at Big W, Officeworks, Coles and Woolworths.

Adult lunch keepers are available at Woolworths and Officeworks.

Visit the Smash Enterprises website to learn more.

Find Smash Enterprises on Facebook.

Are you ready to face the school year?

Do your schoolies lose everything they own?

*Disclosure: Many thanks to Smash Enterprises for gifting Six Little Hearts with a huge collection of lunchboxes and lunch ware. You've taken some pain out of my January! All opinions expressed are those of this blog's Author and family.