Kristan Higgins’ My One and Only is happily ensconced on the NYT and USA Today bestseller lists, and I have been offered a fun little collection to celebrate.
If you leave a comment and tell me the most essential item in your car’s glove compartment, you’re entered to win. Easy! And what could you win? A prize pack that includes a really cute travel bag, some travel essentials like lip gloss, mascara, and bronzer, and a copy of the book.
My glove compartment essentials are kinda boring: a mylar reflective heat blanket, bottles of water, hand wipes, about 14,000 pens that don’t work, and a really bad GPS. If you know which one is my car and want to steal it, go for it – it gives really crap directions, like getting off the highway and getting on one of those roads with stoplights and big box stores every 200 ft. I think it would take me to Manhattan by way of Texas if I allowed it. I do have a candy stash, though. No touching!
Standard disclaimers apply: I am not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Hang up and drive. Texting while operating a moving vehicle is punishable by a lot of hateration and some glaring, and possibly a heaping ticket if the cops spot you. No hateration in this dancery. You’ve got 24 hours. This contest is open to residents of the US and Canada.
So, what’s in your
wallet
glove compartment that absolutely must stay there? Got a dashboard mascot that is required in your car? Anyone have a mini-library in their car, too, or are you one of those people who can’t read in a moving vehicle?
Napkins! I always swear no more food in the car, but that never works. Have my bobblehead turtle on the dash for good luck. Kids books in the pockets of the front seats—never go anywhere without a book!
How big is your glove compartment???
I have almost nothing in there, or nothing that I use for myself. The little wheel lock tools are in there (so that I don’t have to hunt them down every time I get my tires rotated since they’re wierdo shapes). My insurance card (a few years’s worth, actually…I never subtract, only add….). The folder with all the car maintenance records (oil changes, tire rotations,t he few repairs). And the car owner’s manual. There’s not room for anything else.
Ok, so maybe I’m the strange one who keeps every receipt for every oil change since I bought the car in 2003 on hand at all times. But if I brought them in the house, I would lose them and when I need to know whether I’ve had some service done I’d spend hours hunting around or end up paying for extra crap to my car that I don’t need.
I’m kind of afraid that half of the “required maintenance” suggested by car repair places are a rip-off anyway, so it’s nice to be able to verify that I’ve already been ripped-off and when exactly the last fleecing took place.
I do have an assortment of power cords, hair bands, spare change, and CD cases (no MP3 jack…I buy those old-fangled plastic circles for music…) in other various nooks and crannies of my car. Of those, I’d say the hair bands are most important. I cannot drive with the windows down without tying back my hair.
I have an extra pair of sunglasses in my glove compartment. 🙂
I’ve got a Miata so my glove box is teeny-tiny. The most vital thing in there would probably be the car wash coupons that I collect so when I get to 10 I get a free car wash. I’ve got to keep my baby looking SHINY!
mans37: Why yes, I’m 37 and I don’t have a mans. Do you have one for my glove box?
Besides all of the important car items (tire gauge, maps, insurance/registration, etc.), I keep a small pack of condoms. I’m in college, and sometimes you never know when the mood will strike ;).
Here’s what’s in my glove compartment….
-lip balm
-travel size container of Kleenex
-hand sanitizer
-hand lotion
-mints
-min phone book w/ map of my city inside
See how practical I am. Nothing too exciting in there.
Let’s see…. insurance and registration – old and new, not even sure if the latest one is in there.
Stack of fast food paper napkins.
sandwich bag with hard candies (mint is supposed to help keep the kids from puking)
lock thingy for removing the wheels
hand lotion
used to have an Entertainment book in there, but we never used the coupons, so haven’t bought a new one.
random papers. Oh lordie, I don’t know what’s in there. It’s stuffed full, but I don’t really know with what.
My dashboard mascot is a hula dancing shark. Dear hibby got it for me since I love all things shark.
http://www.amazon.com/Miniature-Dashboard-Hula-Doll-Sunglasses/dp/B004UIBR3W/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1302892193&sr=8-2-fkmr2
Don’t know how to make a clickable link.
The most essential item is my Tom=tom GPS. It does a fantastic job of getting me around Moscow and beyond. It can tell the difference between Leninsky, Leningradsky and Leningradskoye and can find the Karamishevskaya Naberzhnaya faster than I can sound out the syllables.
The other essential is the insurance papers. You don’t want to run afoul of the Gov’t Auto inspectors (job description: harassing motorists in hopes of collecting a bribe) and be caught without the right documents.
BTW, glove box is bardashok in Russian, derived from the word Bardok, which means complete and utter mess.
I have a US address, if that is required for gifties.
guess it makes the link clickable w/o me doing anything special
Aspirin and iPod. Got my tunes; got my painkillers. I can face the world.
Let’s see… other than handwipes, which nearly everyone seems to have mentioned, my sunglasses. Can’t do without ‘em.
My .44 magnum (pearl handle for those special occasions) and some Motrin. Go ahead. Make my day.
Good luck, everyone!
Totally mundane: car insurance info, owner’s manual, an empty eyeglass case to sunglasses I’ve since lost and fistfulls of tissue.
Most Essential – a collapsible water dish and dog treats. OH, and an extra leash!
Most useful: napkins. Least useful: a set of shiny beads that used to hang from my rearview mirror, until a state trooper in South Dakota pulled me over and issued me a warning.
Of course, you have all the boring essential things like insurance and whatnot.
But aside from that, the most essential item is definitely my MP3 player adapter. I’m one of those people who needs music in the car even if I’m only in it for 2 minutes. My car doesn’t have a CD player, and don’t even get me started on how DJs talk too much. Best $5 ever spent.
Most important is probably the car manual.
Most essential thing in there is probably my birth certificate – still there from the days when that’s all you needed to get into Canada. That probably doesn’t need to stay, though. Other essential thing is my owner’s manual – I always forget things like which jumper cable goes where. Everything else just lives somewhere in the back of my Jeep.
I have to say, my glove box is pretty boring! Only have my registration in there. My center console is where I keep all my crap (cd’s, pens, cash~although not often, etc).
Man, I am not exciting at all. I have a tire pressure gauge, the key I need to take the lugnuts off, owner manual, registration, and a mostly useless adhesive lint roller with a broken handle. Now I’m going to go put something more interesting in my glove box (heh) so I feel better about myself.
I have maps, cassettes (my car is really old), insurance card, all the manuals that come with your car, hand sanitizer, bottle of lotion, kleenex, an extra pen, some paper, a stack of notes to different locations (places I go to enough I don’t want to continuously print out directions, not enough that I remember where they are without directions), an extra menu, an extra book, and water.
Except my car is really messy right now so most of those items are either at my passenger’s feet section or between the passenger and driver’s seat.
The really important stuff is in my trunk though. Emergency kit, extra clothes and shoes, blanket, extra oil and anti-freeze (and cleaning fluid but that’s unnecessary since that part of my car doesn’t work), paper towels, extra water, some weapons, a different extra book.
All of which to say I just need salt and I’m ready for the zombie apocalypse. With books for the downtime.
Napkins!!!
I have antibacterial gel, napkins and writing pens. On my dashboard is a 10 year old bobble head lizard named Iggy..haha. He is so pathetic looking but I can’t stand to get rid of him. Too many memories. His head was even kidnapped once with a ransom note!! ( high school girls) 🙂
Let’s see, I know there is all the usual stuff, well I really hope it’s in there. Thankfully I haven’t needed to get out my ins. card or registration for anything. Then there a huge amount of napkins, varies colors and sizes from the different food spots. A pack of mentos and a tube in case of boredom just add diet coke! (you put the tube on a botte of diet coke… ow I guess I need a tooth pick for that. you use the toothpick to hold it in place, load the mentos, pull the toothpick and get the heck out of the way!) it makes an awesome fountain! Don’t do this in or near your car!!!
Rub on decals, when I get bored or see something very plain I like to decorate it. I have already decorated varies things that have sat in my car for to long. I think there are old picts. from High School too… now that I’m thinking about it, I should really clean that out.
But I have glow necklaces in the trunk… you never know when you’ll want to wear one! 🙂
I have several mascots for my car. I have Stitch who hangs on a window… usually with his tongue up his nose (thanks to friends) and a stuffed clown named Red, then I have a hot wheels car that’s a mini of my car!
I have tapes in there (yes, cassestte tapes) so you know there isn’t any new music!
I have Kleenex in my glove compartment. For those moments when your nose starts running for no good reason and you REALLY don’t want to wipe it on your sleeve.
Band aids and baby wipes!!
Napkins and saltines- I always keep saltines. You never know when you need a little pick me up snack or get stuck with someone that gets car sick- the saltines help with both. Napkins for sneexing, clean up and writing quick notes.
A map, our GPS, and the auxiliary cable that allows me to play my iPod in the car. Oh, and umbrella in case there’s a spontaneous rain shower!
On a side note, I’m absolutely in love with all of Kristan Higgins’s books. She rocks.
I couldn’t tell you the last time I opened my glove box. That’s because all of the stuff I DON’T need is crammed in there. But I do know that I have a huge supply of straws for my diet Coke (to which I am addicted). I seem to remember putting my garage door opener in there only because my garage is crammed as full as the glove box and I can’t get my car in there.
Thanks for the give-away!
THe must have in my glovebox—the ever popular first aid kit. With snmll boys you can never have enough bandaids.
I keep an extra dog leash in my car. You never know if you come across a dog who is lost and you need to contact their owner.
My glove compartment has reflective blankets, hand warmers, chapsticks, glow sticks, kleenex, fast food napkins, and lots of “important” papers my husband needs to find a real home for. (We do not open it unless absolutely desperate, obviously) 🙂
Hi, thanks for the contest i would love the cool prizes. The most important thing in my glovebox is my car manual for every six months when I have to change the clock. 🙂
I have alot of napkins in my glove compartment and plastic utensils!! Always comes in handy!!
Dying to read this book!!!
Besides all the important papers you need to not get a ticket I have an extra pair of sunglasses, lip gloss that’s easily 12 years old and breath mints. You know in case I need to girl my way out of a ticket.
My must have in the glove compartment is napkins, of course. But after last summer, we had to add a first aid kit. We went camping and my 4 year old fell into a cactus and we had no tweezers! We had to go to other campsites to find some. She also broke her arm later that trip. So a first aid kit is a must!
My glove compartment contains: car battery charger for those times when my car dies (you know an outlet for it to work though), what used to be nice smelling lotion (I’m sure it’s grody now), socks and panties (mine and I’m not sure why they’re in there…), clumsy people napkins, and a GPS.
Maps! My gps and i do not get along, so I would be lost without my city maps. And because who knows what types of maps will be needed, I have 10+ years outdated tri-state maps (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York)…and yet I drive in none of these states.
a change of underwear in a zip lock bag. a roll of quarters. AND… peanut butter crackers and lil bags of peanuts. don’t worry i do recycle them if they have been in there very long…