Pack fruit in a hard box with zero room to rattle

Packing fruit in a hard-sided container with a tight fit is the simplest way to keep it from bruising when your backpack gets tossed around. A hard lunchbox alone doesn’t cut it — the fruit still slides into the thermos or a sandwich bag.

The trick is immobilization. Bruises happen when fruit slams into something hard, whether that’s the side of a bag, a water bottle, or another apple. So put fruit in a rigid container (a small mason jar, a Bentgo-style box, or a tupperware that’s just big enough) and fill every empty space with something soft. A cloth napkin, a paper towel, or even a folded sandwich bag works. If you can shake it and hear nothing, you’ve done it right.

Also pick your fruit wisely. Blueberries, cherries, and grapes are basically indestructible — they’d be fine in a ziplock. Peaches, plums, and apricots are not. If you’re packing a fragile fruit, wrap it in a paper towel first and think of the container as its padded cell. And honestly, sometimes the answer is just to pack an apple or a pear for backpack days and save the delicate stuff for sit-down lunches.

Future You can eat a whole peach instead of mush.