L. L. Bean Lunch Box

Last August, we picked up an L. L. Bean lunch box for my daughter's school lunches while in Freeport, Maine at the L. L. Bean Store. She spotted it at the store, loved its floral Hawaiian print, and begged for it.

At $12.50, the L. L. Bean Lunch Box was a bit of an extravagance, but it turns out to have been worth the money. The L. L. Bean Lunch Box made it all the way through the school year, and my daughter, who requests a new backpack every year, liked it so much she wanted to use it again this year.

The L. L. Bean Lunch Box is large enough to hold a standard-sized sandwich, some carrot sticks, a dipping sauce, a dessert, some fruit, and an ice pack. That's plenty for an elementary-school student. It is insulated to help keep food cool until school lunch time.

My daughter, now still in elementary school, likes the flat design because her lunch box fits easily onto the narrow top shelf of the classroom lunch cart.

The one thing that's not so good about the L. L. Bean Lunch Box is that the label says it is not machine washable and to surface clean only. Yes, I do usually wipe it with a sponge. But if it needs a more thorough cleaning, and it sometimes does, I disregard the care instructions. I wash it in my washing machine on the delicate cycle and hang it up to line dry.