I try to answer any questions as I see them pop up on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or in my latest Lazy Bento’er posts, but I thought I’d put the questions that get asked over and over in one spot for those of you who don’t follow me elsewhere and who are wondering.

1. Where do you get all of your Bento supplies?

I try to link to everything I use in my posts, but I get my supplies from either All Things for Sale or Amazon. For the sake of full disclosure, I use affiliate links for the items that I link to, so I can get a little moolah for sending you guys their way. And I was able to order some really cute new stuff for Emma from straight up referral money. So thank YOU for clicking the links and ordering and keeping The Lazy Bento’er in business!

2. How do you store everything?

I used to keep it all in two big bowls on top of my fridge, but now that we are trying to sell our house, I needed to put them out of sight. So I bought a 3-drawer container from The Wal-mart, and I keep it all in our pantry. This actually helped get everything more organized, which makes fixing her lunches even easier and faster.

top drawer: sandwich cutters and molds, food picks, bands for boxes and silicone cups

middle drawer: all of our two-tier boxes

bottom drawer: all of our single boxes and our Easy Lunchboxes

And here it is inside of our pantry:

Let me just go ahead and say this – I DO NOT NEED THIS MUCH STUFF. I could easily do these lunches with 4 Easy Lunchboxes and a couple of cookie cutters. I like seeing Emma’s face when she gets new bento boxes in the mail, and I like having a variety of things to send with her. I’m also lucky to be fixing lunch for a girl, so there are a lot more cute options out there. But you do NOT need 3 drawers of stuff to make “Bento” lunches. I will say that I have probably spent less money on supplies for this year than I would spend on plastic baggies and pre-packaged bags of chips or cheez-its or whatever.

3. What do you do with the sandwich scraps?

I either eat them, give them to Lucy for lunch or feed them to our dog. Part of the reason I started doing these lunches was to get Emma to eat her food and not waste it – I don’t want to turn around and waste everything I don’t use. So I would say 9 times out of 10, I just eat it as I’m fixing her lunch. [What? I'm breastfeeding a HUGE baby!] I also try to utilize as much of the bread as possible, so I will try to squeeze 2 or 3 mini-sandwiches out of one sandwich with my cutters. Or I will often use a big cutter for Emma’s lunch sandwich and then cut small shapes out of what’s left to save for Lucy’s lunch at home.

4. How do you find the time to make these?

I’m going to cover this more thoroughly in this Friday’s weekly post, but preparing lunches this way doesn’t take that much more time than it takes to fix an average lunch. All-in-all, I’d say it takes maybe 2-3 minutes longer? And that’s factoring in taking the pictures for the blog, too.

You fix a sandwich. I fix sandwich. I just press a cookie cutter into it to make shapes.

You wash grapes and throw them in a baggie. I wash grapes and throw them in a box with a couple of food picks.

You toss a baggie of goldfish crackers in a lunch box. I toss a handful of goldfish crackers in a silicone muffin cup in a box.

You cut up cantaloupe and put in a bowl. I cut up cantaloupe, stick a toothpick in a few of them and put it in a box.

See where I’m going with this? This is not something that takes hours. It’s just making lunch. I just put a few extra steps to a.) make it more fun for my kid, and b.) end up with less waste.

5. What are your favorite bento items?

I super duper love my two-tier boxes. I think it’s a matter of personal preference here, but I just really like the stacking factor of these boxes. They are also really cute.

I also love using food picks and sandwich/cookie cutters. It’s the easiest way to make her lunch more exciting without really having to do much of anything.

I love my single boxes for snacks now that Emma has 2 separate meals at school, and I obviously like using silicone cups for food separation. And I can’t forget my bands to hold the 2-tier boxes together.

6. Bento seems kind of girly to me.

Well, yes. I would say that there are a lot of “girly” and “cutesy” things out there for bento lunches. However, I tend to buy girly and cutesy because I am currently fixing lunch for a girl. There are PLENTY of boyish items, too. One of my favorite bento bloggers prepares awesome lunches for 2 boys, and they never look girly at all.

Four words: Star Wars Sandwich Cutters

There are also a lot of neutral options out there like clear plastic boxes with dividers or Easy Lunchboxes or just plain old tupperware containers. I choose to buy the “cutesy” stuff because I have a girl who LOVES it, and I know I’ll be fixing lunches for at least one more girl. When it’s Henry’s turn to take school lunches [or even eat solid foods!], things will become a little less girly around these parts. ;)

I think that about covers it for the questions I’ve received lately. If you EVER have a question about my bento lunches, please don’t hesitate to comment or email me. I would be happy to share anything with you!

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