Skip the fancy salad lunch box

You don’t need a purpose-built salad lunch box—just a wide, shallow container with at least a quart of space and a separate leak-proof dressing jar.

Deep containers crush your greens and make eating awkward. A wide one lets you actually toss the salad and eat straight out of it. The Sistema Bento To Go nails this for cheap: built-in dressing well, compartments for toppings, totally leak-proof. Not fancy, but it just works.

Prefer glass? Pyrex Snapware or an Ello Duo plus a small silicone dressing cup on the side. Slightly more to carry and noticeably heavier, but it won’t stain or hold onto onion smell. Plastic is fine for a desk salad though—don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

The other rule: dressing stays out until you eat. Even the best container won’t save greens that sat in vinaigrette for four hours. If there’s an office fridge, you’re done. If not, a small ice pack in an insulated bag does the job.

You can have this whole setup for under $30, and it’ll outlast the trend of buying sad overpriced cafeteria salads.

Future You gets a crisp salad instead of a soggy one.