Somewhere around the third morning, you open a lunch bag at Mom's house and find a container with no lid, a fork you did not pack, and an ice pack that has been sitting in the freezer since the last time anybody thought about lunch. The kids are fine. You are not, because you know that the lunch that goes out the door is only as good as the kit behind it.
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A lunch kit is the containers, the bags, the ice packs, the utensils, and the small stuff that makes a sandwich into a lunch. Two houses means two kits, or one kit that travels, and either way you need to know what you have before the week starts.
Count what you have, not what you remember
Go through each kitchen and pull out every container and bag. Count the lids too, because lids are the first thing to wander off. Write the numbers on a card you keep inside the lunch bag or on the fridge, whichever gets read.
Then count the days. If each child needs one lunch for each school day in a row, you need enough containers to cover that run, plus a spare for the day one goes missing. If a kid comes home with a container every day and you only have three, the spare is not a luxury. It is the rule that keeps the morning from falling apart.
Check the fit before you buy anything
Pick up one container and one bag and check three things. Does the container fit in the bag with the ice pack on top? Does the lid snap shut with a small hand, or does it need a grown-up thumb? Does the bag fit in the cubby, the backpack, or the car seat pocket where it actually lives?
Most lunch trouble is a fit problem. A container that does not fit the bag gets left on the counter. A lid that does not open for the kid gets thrown out at school. Test the set before the week starts, not at 7:10 on a Monday.
Decide who packs on the nights that matter
The packing night is the one that breaks most often. Someone has to cut the fruit, fill the bottles, and put the ice pack in the freezer the night before. If that someone is you at one house and Mom at the other, you need to know which kitchen has the ice packs, which has the cutting board, and which has the bread.
Pick one rule and write it down. Some families keep a full kit at each house. Others move one kit back and forth on the drive. Either can work. What does not work is a kit that is half at each house and a kid who gets the last container.
Ice packs and cold food
Keep the cold items cold, and keep them in the same bag every day so the kid knows where the cold things go. Freeze the ice packs the night before, in the kitchen where you pack, and check them when you fill the bag. If you forgot, use what is in the freezer and move on. Nobody has ever been ruined by a warm yogurt, but you will hate finding the bag still full on Thursday.
Check it once a week
Every week, look at the card you wrote. Count the containers, check the lids, and see whether the spare is still in the bag. Replace what is missing before the next packing night, not after. The kit is not a project you finish once. It is a small system that keeps the week running, and it only stays running if someone checks it.