Review: Goodbyn Lunchbox

Yippee!! Today's post is for my first Buy Local Pacific Northwest product: the Goodbyn Lunchbox from the Seattle company, Byndoo. We've reviewed quite a few lunchboxes and lunch bags over the past few weeks, but today's lunchbox is absolutely, completely unlike anything you've ever seen before. If you are a picnicking kind of family like we are, then I'm guessing you have a whole cabinet full of those little disposable 8 oz. plastic containers that you can get at Target. Thanks to our recent move and our temporary digs, I have TWO cabinets full of these containers. However, with the ingenious design of the Goodbyn, the days of organizing and reorganizing stacks of tiny little plastic containers are a thing of the past. So, too, are juice boxes, snack packs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that taste like bananas! Click on Read more... to find out how Goodbyn is greening-up and revolutionizing the way you pack lunches for your kids.

Review is based on a 4-star scale:

Functionality *** - I'll start with a brief description of a Goodbyn. The Goodbyn is a BPA and phthalate-free plastic lunchbox with self-contained individual compartments. There are plenty of lunch boxes on the market that come with individual containers for you to pack your food in before you put it in the box, but with the Goodbyn, you actually just pack your food directly into the compartments in the lunchbox which totally eliminates the need for washing a million plastic containers at the end of the day. Each compartment is completely sealed from the next. One of my least favorite lunch combinations as a kid was when my mom would pack a peanut butter and jelly along with a fairly ripe banana. To this day, I can remember how all I could taste was the banana when I ate my sandwich. Thanks to the tight seals, Goodbyn eliminates "flavor contamination." While Goodbyn does not recommend transporting thin liquids, they do stand by the seal when it comes to things like hummus or thick sauces. I tested out a container full of yogurt. I sealed it up, shook it and then opened it up. The yogurt stayed in the compartment, although I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to trust it for a morning at school. Yogurt can get a little runny.
There are 6 compartments altogether with one being for the reusable beverage container which leaves 4 larger and one relatively small compartments for food. There is plenty of space to pack a lunch for even the hungriest of elementary school kids! The bottom compartment easily fits a sandwich once you cut it into halves, and the very top compartment is big enough for even our plastic Ikea kids silverware to fit in lengthwise.

I love that the Goodbyn is completely dishwasher safe. I wash the bottom of the lunchbox on the top shelf because that's the only place that it will fit in my smallish dishwasher. I wash the lid on the bottom shelf and it doesn't warp. I was also surprised at how well the stickers stay on. Admittedly, we've only washed it a few times at this point, but so far, so good. The other interesting and very smart design note is that the ears are actually the kid-friendly handle for removing the top of the lunchbox. Clever! The only flaw that I've found is that I'm not certain where you put an ice pack to keep things cold. In my youth, I never had an ice pack in my lunch box, and I survived, but I know that this is an issue for some people. Byndoo recommends packing the lunchbox the night before and keeping it in the fridge overnight, or utilizing one of the compartments for an ice pack.


Style **** - If you're looking for variety in shape, then you'll want to look elsewhere because Goodbyns only come in one shape. However, they do come in 4 different colors including red, blue, green and pink and are completely customizable with the 275 included stickers. Nadia had a blast decorating her lunchbox, in fact, I had to pry her away from it to get out the door. Even if every kid in your child's class had a Goodbyn, there would be no two alike!

Price *** - I'm only going to give the Goodbyn three stars because your initial outlay of $29.95 might seem a little pricey to some. However, I want you to think about how much you will save with the Goodbyn. You can skip the juice boxes by filling the reusable drink box. You don't have to buy individually packaged foods like applesauce or snack crackers, etc. You won't have to buy plastic or even reusable baggies for your sandwiches, and no more little plastic containers!

Overall Rating ***1/2 - The Goodbyn is a completely revolutionary way of thinking about lunch packing, and is one of the most green option for lunch packing that I've found. I'm not going to go into detail about everything that Byndoo does to ensure that the products that they make have as small of an environmental impact as possible because you can read all about that here, but I'm amazed at how Byndoo has thought about every last detail all the way down to including a reusable drink container. If you have more questions about the Goodbyn, you can read their FAQs page for answers to some of the most common questions. I'm very pleased that I got the opportunity to share the Goodbyn as my first Buy Local Pacific Northwest post. Byndoo has definitely been thinking outside the box, so to speak, and for some of us, I know it's hard to put aside your preconceived notions of what a lunchbox is supposed to look and act like. However, if you're willing to give Goodbyn a chance, I don't think you'll be disappointed!

You can buy the Goodbyn directly from the website, but use this link to find local retailers around the country, too.