How to Start

I guess the most important thing is a box. I had a little trouble finding something suitable in my smallish town. I found Lock and Lock online and bought a couple of square boxes with 2 rectangular dividers that each have two dividers...so there are 4 small compartments inside the boxes. I also found at Walmart a Sterilite rectangular box with snap sides that works perfectly for LuLu since she doesn't eat as much. I bought some rubbery cupcake  liners at TJ Maxx and I use those for compartments for LuLu. Another thing is picks. You want your lunches to be cute. All I could find for a year was swords. I finally found Bento USA's website and just got my first order in today...lots of super cute picks. LuLu and Bean are going to flip when they open lunches with these. You can just go crazy with cute things. There are all types of cutters, ones for veggies, ones for sandwiches (got my first ones at Walmart), ones for nori (seaweed sheets and you can punch out facial features for your creations...I couldn't resist, had to get them). You need a lunchbox to pack it all into. I use the Buzz Lightyear one from Target for Bean and LuLu has a Hello Kitty one from there. Her's is a strange shape...more upright. The Lock and Lock won't fit but the Sterilite fits perfectly. And finally ice packs.
So, here is a rundown if you don't want to read my rambling :)

1. Box
2. Rubbery Cupcake Liners (can not think of what these are called)
3. Picks
4. Cutters
5. Lunchbox
6. Ice Pack

These were the first things that I bought. I've bought lots since then but still go back to these basics.