9 Hacks For Far-Superior Brown-Bag Lunches

Stock your desk with an organized collection of essentials, aka a first aid kit for lunch. Some ideas include: containers of olive oil, hot sauce, flaky sea salt, and soy sauce for salvaging underseasoned leftovers and takeout; packets of nut butter for bulking up toast or instant oatmeal; and Shout Wipes (or a Tide Pen) for accidents.

Even if you pack your lunch the morning of — and really, we recommend doing it the night before for sanity reasons — many salad ingredients will be beyond their prime come midday. Stick with sturdy ingredients like beans, grains, root vegetables, and the like to ensure that you won't tuck into a sad, wilted salad.

No, these aren't a passing fad. Avoid sogginess by packing salad dressing, croutons, nuts, and greens in different containers or by layering the ingredients of a salad inside a mason jar. Mason jars (unlike Tupperware) are virtually leakproof.

Learn from our hard-earned wisdom: don't even think about packing soup in anything besides a secure, airtight container like a mason jar. Also, be sure to evenly reheat your soup, lest you end up with gummy results or a burnt tongue.

A tub of Greek yogurt on its own is a pretty sad lunch; add granola, fruit, jam, nuts, or savory add-ins, and it's (light) meal-worthy.