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?
Kristan, are you seriously entering a contest for your own book? lol. BTW, your books are awesome. You are definitely one of my favorites.
Back to the question: I have a Mini so I have multiple cubby holes in addition to my actual glove compartment. I would say that the most important thing in my car, besides me, would be my emergency $20 bill. You never know when you’re going to go someplace that requires cash and I never carry cash so it’s essential for me. I just tuck it away where no one can see it and only use it when necessary.
Other things in my glove box/secret compartment/cubby holes:
iPod
GPS connector and holder (it’s too hot for me to keep the actual GPS in my car, it’s probably also too hot for my ipod but whatever)
Owners Manual (if you’re ever bored, read the Mini Cooper owner’s manual. The guys who wrote it are a hoot.)
Cell Phone Charger
Extra straw for Starbucks Venti drink
Napkins
Umbrella
Dog Leash
Phonebook
Noisemaker for football games
Rain Jacket that fits in a tiny pouch
Re-useable shopping bags
At least 1 water bottle
My new car seems to have a tiny glove compartment, so there’s not room for much – a swiss army knife, the iPod connector, the owner’s manual, and a phone charger. The box of kleenex lives on the passenger side floor, and the microfiber eyeglass cloth is in the bottom of the cup holder along with nail clippers.
I have to admit that the long pointy thing that I’d kept in the door pocket for years, that I’d thought was a tire gauge, turned out to actually be a meat thermometer. Oops.
My girly MacGyver glovebox has : A big ol’ knife, a vast collection of chapsticks, and hand sanitizer.
Paper napkins…in my family, grandkids (and, uh, adults) seem to spill a lot!
Gloves
Bank deposit envelopes.
I have my book on the car lock for tires GPS pens tissues toothbrush registration iunsurance card and a book
A deck of playing cards, of course! I’ve got a pack in both of my vehicles.
My glove compartment is pretty boring – my owner’s manual, insurance card and registration, a small package of Kleenex, a mylar blanket, and a tire pressure gauge, that’s it. I try not to carry a lot of junk in my car, the less you have, the better your gas mileage.
The real emergency kit with jumper cables is in the back and the emergency kit for when I have to use the emergency kit is in the glove compartment. Some of the top must haves include: insurance and registration, car escape tool, poncho, mylar reflective heat blanket, a little bottle of whiskey (sealed, of course), a pack of marlboro reds, a lighter, scented sanitizing hand gel and gum.
Right now the most important thing in my glove compartment is tissues as Ive have bronchitis all week. Now that the meds are kicking in and I seem to be horking up parts of my lungs, the tissues are mighty handy.
bring78- Yeah, 78 boxes just might get me through this
Has to be the large “STOP! EMERGENCY” banner my Mom gave me when I moved away from home 20 years ago. Never needed it. As soon as I take it out I will. Murphy, you know?
Disposable razors for emergency shaving situations… you just never know!
Before I go on any long drive with my kids I have to make sure we still have the DS adaptors in the glove box, because otherwise it’s “He’s touching me!” and endless questions about everything.
I have a map book of Greater Vancouver because I get lost really easily if I’m driving somewhere I’ve never been before. Google also gives the worst directions sometimes.
I’m always paranoid so just in case, I’ve got my toiletries in a bag (toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, little bottle of lotion, nail clipper, and hand sanitizer) and a mountainload of napkins for … everything life throws at me. Hehe.
Gloves in the glove box? No way! All I have in mine is essential proof of insurance & registration. I am obviously way under-prepared.
Hmmmm, I don’t have much that is essential in my glove compartment…just my insurance card, registration, and the owner’s manual for the van.
I don’t have a car…. I hope I’m still eligible? 😀
The Mr. has his insurance papers and…. a province map.
I’ve got the typical (insurance papers, tire pressure gage, manual that I never read for the car) and a few other things:
-lavender & chamomile “nursery” wipes (wipes that are meant for me to clean off the toys that my son drops but will inevitably put back in his mouth. Plus they’re great make up removers and smell great.)
-pens that sometimes work
-a small notebook (never know when inspiration will strike…or when I just need to jot down something I need to get from the store lol)
-vanilla scented hand sanitizer
My must have is a tire pressure gauge. I have a slow leak that I haven’t gotten fixed yet so it’s important to keep my tire inflated. Laziness wins!
Thanks for the giveaway! My essentials are napkins/wipes, artificial sweetener and straws. I used to keep deodorant but my car was broken into and the idiots stole my deo! EEEWW. I was so bothered, I never kept it in another car again.
Burts Bees lip balm, at least two working pens, insurance and registration, a stack of paper towels, shout wipes, baby wipes, an extra diaper, some plastic bags, and an ice scraper. What can I say, I am all about the essentials!
My glove compartment is pretty sparse; I have the car manual, insurance and my GPS.
The two essentials in my glove compartment are the car manual and chapstick (my lips are always dry, especially in the dry winter).
Always have to have kleenex and wipes on hand. I don’t have a car now though.. SO It’s hard to remember what else I had in there…
Sounds goofy but I really love that little wrench thing that takes my license plate on and off.
My most essential glovebox item?
Definitely the handcuffs. You never know when you’ll need ‘em! 😉 And the key lives in my sunglasses holder.
Umbrella and an old GPS that also gives bad directions, like getting off the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago on a rainy Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, and instead taking a long side street that is parallel to the Eisenhower, with traffic lights every mile or so, through blighted Chicago neighborhoods with many vacant lots and burned out old cars. I tried to ignore the GPS telling me to get off the highway at the exit, but Ms. Garmin was most insistent (“Recalculating….”) so I finally caved in to her demands, and then ended up in that scary neighborhood. With my parents sitting in the backseat. Fun times.
I’ve got a pair of scissors in there that I use allll the time.
I must have one of the organizer things in my glove compartment to hold all of the papers and stuff. The other absolute essential is a window punch. I break out in a cold sweat if I open the glove compartment and can’t find it.
So, uh, is any special consideration granted for the first person to mention napkins?
Spamword: values83. I have learned to value having eighty-three napkins in a glove compartment in a car
My Garmin GPS. I have panic attacks if I have to go somewhere and realize that it isn’t in my car. For those that know me, they know that I have absolutely no sense of direction. Without the thing I would be forever lost driving around until I ran out of gas =)
Right now, I have my daughter’s piggy bank in my glove box (don’t ask why…) Other than that, I really only keep napkins and official-looking car paperwork in there. So boring.
I have a teeny, tiny little glove box. It has the owner’s manual in it. That’s all that fits. My insurance and registration I keep in my purse, on account of I went through a phase where my car was broken into almost weekly, and the police suggested I take everything valuable out of it and just leave it unlocked.
Since I don’t have a vehicle myself I’m using my guy’s truck. Most essential item is a toss-up between the maps and the pair of rubber ducks we keep on the dashboard. I’m going to go with the ducks, because they give me something to play with on long trips. One is an army duck, the other is a sheriff with an eyepatch(explain that one).
The most essential thing in my glove compartment is my phone charger! It’s my gps, my job, my link to my sick mother, my phone is everything.
Cell phone charger and hand sanitizer
The most important thing in my glove box is my car manual (I have a really old car, 1993) so I can at least check the oil and the tire pressure, and add windshield wiper fluid. And, of course, I would need napkins to do those things. So it is always stuffed with them!
The most essential thing in my glove box is chapstick. I usually have anywhere from four to seven of them rolling around in there (its an addiction).