There are few things in life that are nicer than going for a picnic. You take some food and drink and your friends or family somewhere nice, and then just relax: eat, drink and be merry.

You can get the food and drink there any way you want – it’s perfectly possible to just take it in shopping bags, or a rucksack, or in any other kind of bag that you can throw in the boot of your car. After you’ve done this a few times, though, you might find that it starts to be a bit of a pain, especially if you’re taking real food instead of just a collection of snacks. What you need is a picnic box.

Picnic boxes are special boxes designed to carry everything the picnicker could ever need. Many come with flasks for your drinks, and special plates and cutlery that is light to carry and can be strapped down in the bag. They generally have compartments and containers for each kind of food that you want to take, stopping it from getting damaged, crushed or going bad.

It’s a simple matter of convenience: while you could experiment trying to find a good box and good containers, picnic boxes give you all that together as a set, and for not much more than you would pay for the parts individually. Not only are they often good value, but they look good too – a picnic box is, apart from anything else, a great centrepiece for your picnic layout. It makes it feel like a real picnic, not just something you’ve thrown together.

When you choose a picnic box, however, there are some things you should bear in mind. The most common mistake people make is to choose a very large picnic box, thinking that bigger is better and it’ll be able to hold everything they want to put in it. When they actually come to fill it with stuff, they find that it’s really difficult to lift and awkward to carry. It’s better to get two small picnic boxes than one big one. Also, don’t buy the cheapest picnic box in the shop – if you choose well, the one you get might last you your whole life.