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At least once a week, I notice that someone forgets something and I say “You left home without ____?” I have learned to be prepared! Now, I’ve found my favorite 10 things to keep the car. Sometimes we will even grab our snack hack and take that with us, too!
I made this list of 10 must-haves for the car, when you have kids, a few years ago. I have found that even though our kids are now older, the things that I keep in the car remain the same. 🙂
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We have four kids, so we are ALWAYS trying to find things in the car. When emergencies pop up, we like to be prepared. It was mostly “learning through experience” that brought us to this list. I’ve been caught without many of these too many times and I’ve learned my lesson! Our car is not “ready for anything” (most of the time, anyway!) Plus, Our kids are young and we need a little more than families with older children.
1. Coats or zip-up sweatshirts in the trunk.
I do this because our kids are constantly cold, especially in restaurants, so if I can have a coat handy, it works out great. I even do this in the summertime because this is when everyone has their AC on full blast and our kiddos get extra-cold if we are out to eat.
2. An extra pair of flip-flops
I can remember several times, when our kids were toddlers or young preschoolers, that they had just forgotten their shoes. Don’t ask me how I overlooked that little detail while we were getting into the car, but somehow it happened more than once.
I’ve also had each of our four kids break a flip-flop at least once during an outing.
Oh- and muddy puddles. How did I forget those?! When my kids were young, they stepped in plenty of puddles and they were left with soaking wet shoes.
Having an extra pair in the car is always a good idea. It may seem weird, but trust me… there is a reason. 🙂
3. Bandaids
You never know when you’ll need one.
4. Power Converter – my FAVORITE thing to keep in the car!
This little box turns any normal plug into a car plug. I can charge anything using this and I use it all of the time! I’ve used this on my laptop, portable DVD players, a cooler that works with a little air conditioner that’s powered by an outlet, the kids’ tablets on a long trip (since our back seat doesn’t have the right outlet for their devices), and so many more things.
This is life-changing for me! (I keep this & all of my chargers in the little-hidden console under the dash). Here is the power converter that we have.
5- Extra Grocery Bags
We always have stuff that needs to be thrown away when we are out & about (antibacterial hand wipes that I made them use after we left the last store, wrappers, broken pencils, paper, empty water bottles) and these grocery-store bags are the perfect way to get rid of it. When we stop to get gas, or when we are going to walk into a store, I will just grab one of the bags from the dashboard and pass it around. The kids toss any trash into the bag and we carry it to the nearest garbage can.
6. Snacks
I try to keep a few snacks in the car because sometimes plans change, and that trip that should have taken one hour is now approaching its third hour.
It just makes it easier if I have a snack to pass back to the kids. Plus, this stops everyone (including myself) from asking if we can stop for something to eat.
7- Sunglasses (extras!)
A few years ago my Mom & I were shopping at Michaels and they had their sunglasses on clearance for 50 cents. We bought about 6 pairs. I have lost most of them by now, but I still keep a few spare pairs of these sunglasses in the car, just in case I lose my regular sunglasses. My kids have also used them when they have forgotten their sunglasses at home.
Oh- I try to stock up each year, at the end of the season. They are always discounted.
TIP: You could even order a cheap pack of 12 and just keep them in the car, under the front seat.
8 – Water Bottles
I keep 3 water bottles in my trunk (in a tote bag). It seems to be a cure-all when we have sticky hands! (NOTE: It has been found that they can leak chemicals, so you might not want to do this. I keep them in there because we use the water to wash up when we are in a bind, but we usually have fresh (new that day) water to drink because the kids grab a new water bottle from the refrigerator in our garage before hopping into the car in the mornings.)
9- My “Restaurant backpack”
This is a backpack that I keep just for going out to eat or going somewhere like that. I keep hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, coloring books, crayons, some small toys & a few other little things. When the kids were young, I kept a high-chair cover and disposable bibs in the bag, too.
10- 3 pack of $.99 Tissues
It never fails that the kids need a tissue when I have none. Now, I keep a skinny box or travel packs of tissues in the glove compartment.
WHAT TO KEEP IN YOUR CAR: READER SUGGESTIONS
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- Scissors (in case you need to cut a seatbelt)
- An extra pair of clothes for the kids
- Ziplock bags (for new clothes & then dirty clothes)
- “barf bags” using disposable diaper genie refills.
- Sticky Notes made FOR YOUR VISOR (love this idea!)
- If you have a potty trainer, keep a mini baby bjorn travel potty in your car.
- A coloring book (we love our Potty Training Coloring binder that we made).
- A bag of books
- Decorate a shoe box as their special car toy box- let them pick the toys that go in it.
- Keep a roll of toilet paper in a plastic bag in the trunk
- 1/2 a roll of paper towel (takes up less room, but does the job.)
- Car laundry basket. Everything goes in there and then into the house (sports stuff, etc…)
- Spare change
- A towel, in case you get caught in the rain (or jumping in puddles!)
What else can you think of?
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We have also needed…cheap mouthguards (sports and concerts), ice bags (the twist n pop kind), screwdrivers, a steak knife, toothpicks/flossers, and deodorant. All items used routinely with my crew of 7 plus. Lol
🙂 haha. good tips!
I keep a gallon sized ziplock in my console with extra napkins, straws, plastic ware because they always miss one it seems.
For me, I got a free makeup bag as a Target freebie and I keep travel sized deodorant, disposable toothbrush, face wipes, tinted Chapstick, body spray, and a powder compact.
For the kids, we have our typical travel bag with diapers, wipes, spare clothes, snacks. I also keep an old ice cream bucket with a lid that contains a fold up potty seat, travel tissues, a squirt bottle of water, a few plastic grocery bags, and a ziplock of Clorox wipes. It’s our emergency potty.
We also keep blankets, a few towels, a flashlight, emergency first aid kit, coloring books/crayons, and spare chargers for phones.
Smart!! I need to do that with the makeup bag stuff!!! Does any of it melt?
I also like to keep a few empty water bottles in the floor compartments of our van for the boys ..*ahem*…emergencies. Sometimes you just gotta go. 🙂
Smart!
We keep a portable power source that has jumper cables and an air compressor for emergencies and a tire plug kit because you never know when you will pick up a nail or screw in your tire causing a flat. I know it always happens to us when we are either out of town or when it is late at night, and it’s nice to be able to take care of it quickly.
Love that- air compressor. My husband will appreciate that!
Tweezers are an absolute must!
I have to agree! I now have them in the door of my car & use them more than I thought! Perfect for a lot of things 🙂
I also keep small blankets that the kids can cover up with in their car seats if they get cold, a couple disposable sippy cups, and when they were babies (and I was no longer able to breast feed) I kept a spare bottle as well and always had a travel pack of similac travel formula in the diaper bag just in case.
I always keep a couple of ziplock bags behind the drivers seat, my kids get car sick a lot and I can’t always pull over and stop fast enough.
Oh- smart & they take up little space!!
Love the idea of diaper genie refills for barf bags. I always kept a supply of airplane barf bags in my glove compartment. Anytime anyone I knew traveled, I always asked them to bring me back as many as they could snag.
For longer trips, I’d fill a shoe box or old backpack with sticker books and dollar store games, puzzle books, markers, crayons, etc so the kids would always have something new to keep them occupied. We did A LOT of long drives when the kids were little and I never once had to threaten to turn the car around or say, “Don’t make me come back there!” LOL! We never suffered through the dreaded “are we there yet?” either.
So cute – the idea about longer trips!
We keep an emergency $10 bill.. There are times when there is no cash in my wallet and it is great for forgotten lunch money, field trip money etc. times when you have to have cash.
Smart! I should do that, too.
These are great, we have many of them in our car, too! I love the restaurant bags! The kids love to have the small toys they don’t get to play with very often.
After a very unexpected trip to the hospital earlier this year, that left us several days without a change of clothes and daily comforts, I now keep a couple small duffel bags in my trunk with a spare change of clothes for each family member, a small toiletry kit (first aid supplies, feminine products, medications, etc), and basically an extra fully-stocked diaper bag for “kid stuff”.
It was very helpful a few weeks ago when my son accidentally spilled a full dish of sweet & sour sauce on me while we were only halfway through our day, and I had a change of clothes in the car waiting! I am definitely an over-packer, but I love to be prepared!!
I could see our kids spilling sweet & sour sauce on them, too! 🙂 haha!!
Great ideas! I am a chronic over-preparer, so our car has a lot of this in it, too! And I love always having what I need on hand. Fist bump to you! (Visiting from Parenting Pointers link up.)
haha!! Thanks, Aubrey! 🙂
I live in Northern BC, so when we switch over to winter tires, I also make sure to swap out the gear in the truck. We always have extra mitts and toques, a first aid kit, a mini shovel (like the ones you can buy for sledding as part of an avalanche kit), and at least one fleece blanket. If I’m going to be driving around for the day, we also have an extra snow suit in the back. Just in case there’s an accident- either driving wise and we’re stuck, or kiddos have their own accidents. Generally with the first aid kit I also have granola bars, dried fruit, Mr Noodles (dried) and water and juice boxes. I don’t mess around when its snowing haha.
haha! We used to do that, too, when we lived in PA (switch to winter tires).
I love the idea of the blanket & shovel. That is REALLY smart. I might have to include that in another post about being prepared for the winter! 🙂
Great list! I finally made a car bag this week. So far I have water, sunscreen, extra clothes, extra socks, first aid kit, hair ties, brush, etc. I will definitely be adding more items over time!!!
haha!! The brush… I will need that one (good thinking)- our 2 year old is finally starting to have longer hair. 🙂 I’ll be adding this one.
i have a small tote with a lid for each one of my boys (I have 2) and in them I have socks, a mess kit with fork and spoon, plate, cup for drink and a cup for snacks, coloring book with color pencils (crayons melt in the heat. . . Yuck!) a book for reading a few ziplock bags of different sizes, and for my youngest diaper rash cream and diapers. I always have a diaper bag in the car with 2 changes of clothes and either tennis shoes or sandals, which ever one they are not wearing, and then I have a spare shirt and socks for me and my husband in the back!
The thing I find most useful (being a bloke) that has not been mentioned thus far is a LeatherMan (or cheaper copy). I keep one in both our car’s glove boxes. For those that don’t know about them, they are like an oversized ‘Swiss Army Knife’ with a set of pliers, a couple of knives, screwdrivers, a hole punch, scissors, tweezers, toothpick, a wood and plastic saw, a hack saw, fish scaler, wire strippers, wire cutter etc. etc. up to 30 or more implements/tools in some of them…all of which come in handy at one time or another.
The other thing I make sure is always in both our cars is a roll of sticky tape and some stamps. Sticky tape for wrapping last minute presents as we can often find wrapping paper but don’t like buying a new roll of sticky tape each time. Stamps for when you forget birthdays etc. and want to send a card straight away so it’s not too late (and a pen and pencil of course).
Thanks for the list and other comments, we already have many of these things in our cars but I’ll be updating what’s in them this weekend.