What essential items do you keep in your car?

[supercee]

I've just got my first car at the age of 39!

What essential items do you keep in it? Or anything you find useful? Or non-essential but you think are handy?

So far I only have a usb cable to plug my phone in. I'm thinking de-icer? What else?

A riveting Saturday night thread...!

Always a warm/fleecy blanket. Been the first person at too many nasty prangs to not have one in the car.
Cheap plastic disposable cape in case I get stranded in bad weather and have left home without a coat( never needed that thankfully)
Coins for parking and buying emergency snacks
De icer and scraper
Lip balm
Usually a stale bottle of water

I was only thinking the other day how it kind of made me sad how the contents of my car had changed this year.

50 pack of masks
Bin bag in boot for said masks
Hand sanitizer (when this is all over,I’m keeping that habit)
Thermometer (here you have to have verified your temperature an hour before going into some places)
First aid kit
Torch
Emergency triangle/flares
A folding chair for my kids sports games
10,000 different bits of sporting paraphernalia
A blanket for when my shedding breed dog is sat on my leather upholstery

My kids would probably say that the amount of crap in the back seat is also essential but I would probably disagreee on that one.

First aid kit
A-Z
Small pack of san pro
Hand sanitizer
Pen and paper
Loose change for the carpark
Hairbrush
Brolly
Small make up bag of essential toiletries
Picnic rug
Dog lead and pop bags etc
A jumper
Cheap pac a Mac
Tissues
Detail wipes - covid
Face mask - covid
National trust handbook
Details for breakdown cover and insurance

Tissues
Trolley token
Window hammer
Carrier bags/shopping bags
Face mask
Sunglasses
Wipes
De-icer spray

Masks, pound coins, hand sanitizer, tissues and a lipstick!

Pain killers , tissues , wet wipes ,
Sick bags or nappy sacks ,
Blanket , lose change and now hand sanitiser,mask .

A cloth for condensation
A scraper for condensation
De-icer- I have a bottle but don't really use

Lots of things on the pp lists, plus 3x sellotape rolls for emergency present wrapping as I’m hopelessly last minute and I always get gifts on the way to see people. I always forgot about the tape from the last 2 times I did it so I buy that too. I must have 50 rolls at home.

De-icer
Coins
Masks
Shopping bags
Your licence
(I’m Childfree too, so don’t need things for mopping up disgusting bodily secretions or entertaining shitty kids)

I have 2 knife /hammer tools
One kept in the drivers side pocket and one in the back seat net pocket
It’s used for cutting seatbelts and smashing windows with one or two taps
( I have a fear of being trapped in my car and can’t get out and no one else can get me out either 😂)
But besides that I keep a big bottle of water
Loose change
2 USB leads
Blanket / throw
Bed socks
Gloves
Spare glasses
Spare masks
Warm jacket
Demister

As before plus
flu max tablets
suntan lotion
loo roll

Torch, wipes, masks, water, first aid kit, book, towel, pound coins. atlas, sunglasses, sunscreen, dog blanket, general detritus.

I always carry a camping chair in the boot, plus an umbrella, wellies, waterproof coat and trousers, blanket, bottles of water, spare dog lead, phone charger, torch, first aid kit, bag from when I drive abroad with hi-vis, spare bulbs etc, jump leads, tyre pump, bottle jack, plus a few dips from McDonald’s! Oh, and my glasses and prescription sunglasses.

The camping chair is due to being disabled - in case of a breakdown and a long wait for recovery, I need something to sit on!

Oh, I forgot my blue badge, a couple of masks, an ice scraper and about a million shopping bags! Yes, my car is a bloody disgrace!

Charging lead, plasters, spare glasses, Tampax, sanitiser, mask, spare knickers, loo roll (in case there isn’t one somewhere) lipstick (no good in summer heat), condoms, loose change, pen, notebook with key numbers in it (in case of phone out of juice etc), spare stockings (yes, l still wear them), breakdown triangle, new sealed bottle of water (still goes yucky in the heat), deoderant, blanket.

A lot of the stuff people are listing lives in my handbag that I take with me. It would really annoy me to have it all in the car. Plus if you drive more than one car (DHs for example) it makes more sense.

Baby wipes
Pounds coin/shopping trolley token
Bottle of water
Blanket
Carry potty and toilet roll
Pen and paper
Phone charger
Tissues
Ice scrapper/de-icer
Carrier bags for the supermarket
Sunglasses
Umbrella

Wind up torch
Phone charger
Water
First aid kit
Emergency kit, including snack bars
Gloves, hat, body warmer
Blankets x3
Picnic rug
Umbrella
Wellies and walking boots
Currently stocking presents

I have a dread of breaking down somewhere at the side of the road and being stuck cold in the dark with a small child, so stocked up and at least now we won’t get cold or hungry

Box of tissues
Mini hand sanitizer
Charging lead
Map of Great Britain x 2

Having also been stuck in the snow a few years ago and came close to having to walk 6 miles home I now have a "winter box" which normally goes in the car about December and has wellies and spare socks, plus those gripper things that go on shoes; snowsuit things for tyres (although the one time I needed them and we tried to fit them we couldn't, so they definitely need practising!); warm blanket; big warm florescent jacket; plus lots of the things already mentioned, some of which stay in the car year round (foil blanket, fluorescent vest, warning triangle, windscreen breaker, hand warmers, etc). I think my colleagues thought I was somewhat over-anxious as we're not in an area that gets a lot of snow but understood when we nearly got stuck again (a 15 minute journey turned into over 3 hours).

Tyre pressure machine
Mask
Phone charger
Window scraper
Window squeeze for inside

Windscreen scraper, a cloth, torch, first aid kit, one of those red warning triangle thingies, my glasses (I wear contacts day to day), baby wipes (for DD, 16 months), few pounds coins, bags for supermarket.

A blanket
Scraper
Medication
Screen Spray
Demister pad
Spare tyre and jack
Snacks
Water

Notepad and pen
Tissues
De-icer spray
Ice scraper/sponge thingy
Shopping bag
Hand cream

Jump leads, can't understand why they are not top of everyone's list! They are the only thing I have desperately needed in 30 years of driving,