lunchboxes/ insulated packs

last year c&a stayed occasionally (once a week or every other week) for lunch after preschool (they only went 3 days a week and it ended at 12 but sometimes they stayed for aftercare and had lunch there. this summer they brought lunch to camp (5 weeks) every day and their $25 pbk lunch boxes are now totally destroyed - smelly from spilt milk and molding up because i've tried to wash them. gross.
this coming year they will also need to bring lunch every day to preschool (don't even get me started on how much i dread and hate packing lunches) so i'm definitely in need of new lunchboxes. any recommendations? i don't really want to spend a lot of money if they are just going to get gross every year. although i did stop sending milk for lunch because it always seemed to spill/ drip, so that should help with the gross factor.
links? ideas? resources?

thanks!

 

Well, I buy lunchboxes when they are on sale at Meijer. Nothing fancy for us. I always send drink boxes in the lunchbox. One suggestion for a lunchbox that is easy to clean: Make sure it opens on 3 sides. Get a square one that zips (like a suitcase) so you can easily clean inside. I'm not very fond of making lunches either!

 

I really like the Land's End ones, because they are hard plastic on the inside, and very easy to keep clean.

(Of course, they still get dirty on the outside, and I haven't yet figured out the best way to clean them. The label says not to machine wash.)

I've had the best luck with the Thermos FooGo straw cups, in terms of keeping drinks cool and no leaking. I send very diluted juice, though, not milk.

 

Totally agree with Jen here. Square zippered one. Whatever is on sale. We send juice boxes also. And John gets milk for lunch from the school. Most have a lining on the inside for easy cleaning!

 

we are visiting my parents in seattle and went to the hanna andersson outlet today and got them both new lunchboxes for $6! yay! now, if i could just get a lunchbox that magically made lunch by itself, we'd be in business!

 

We got our backpacks and lunchboxes from the Children's Place this year.

 

I also like the Lands End lunch boxes and I waited for them to go on sale and then I bought them. My kids took lunch just about every day (I let them buy lunch twice) and they are still in good shape. I bought my girl thermos thermos's to keep their water in (and sometimes juice) and I would sometimes put one or two ice cubes in it and the girls would tell me there was still ice in them when it was time for lunch. I also had problem with my girls spilling their yogurts so their lunchboxes got cleaned often.

As for cleaning the outside I usually wet the area I was to wash and sometimes use just a tiny bit of soap and then use a little nail brush on it. It has worked pretty good at getting most of the marks off the outside of them.