Car / get home bag ?

[K9medic]

Car bag or possibly a get home bag.

Up until a couple of years ago I was travelling a lot of long distances for work. I always had a car / get home bag in the boot. Usually this was a 30 lt Day sack with the contents designed around a night in the car or if really bad “Event” heading home on foot (I have experience of long distance walking with minimal kit, and know I could have pushed myself from most places in the UK).

These days it is more likely to be less than 60 miles from home and weather related forces a night in the car, so slight change in equipment.

For those of you carrying a car kit, what do you favour for a bag (or box for that matter) rather than the contents. Is it Day sack so your still relatively mobile or hold all because they hold more?

I've got stuff permanently in a supermarket bag - one of those oblong shaped reusable ones in the boot. Much levity in our house about my earlier decision to ditch the tow rope because we'd never need it and it's heavy. Needless to say we needed it about 3 weeks later. Luckily the person giving us a tow had one. As well as a spare towel - as a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I was particularly impressed with the towel . Which they let us keep and it's in the back of our car duly laundered.

My car stuff is in a supermarket bag as it contains more. However the bag does also have a Decathlon folding backpack in it (amazing things, cost only a few pounds and fold into an apple size).
Some things in the car have more than one purpose - there is a duvet in the boot under a waterproof picnic blanket which is normally there for the dogs, but was much appreciated when my car broke down on a very cold hill top and I was waiting for the RAC. The power pack jumpstarter will charge my phone many times as well

I have mine in a trunki backpack in the boot. I was finding the contents got squashed in normal bag and the plastic box broke from the weight of the buggy. The trunki is also great for emergency child related travel (obviously older kids that are legally allowed to use it). People judge my car kit. Having been stuck overnight in the car (floods) with nothing, I now appreciate a well stocked car. Especially now I have children.

Winter blankets and gloves are kept in a supermarket reusable bag. Car boot in winter, garage in summer.

I have a rucksack with waterproof trousers, hats, gloves, sun hats, sunscreen,

Personally, I would have a good comfortable walking rucksack if you need to walk and other stuff stored in suitable containers. You can pick out the kit you need to walk with and transfer to rucksack.

My car acts as extra storage, D's is coat phobic but I keep his warm waterproof in the car.

I still chuck the daysack in the car if im working away from home.

An old canvas tool bag holds car stuff, jump leads, toe rope, tyre weld etc.

Blankets and other spare kit is in a small hold all these days.

And my normall edc / work stuff is in a daysack rather than briefcase.

I do like the idea though of one of those bags for life as a chuck in the car if forcast is bad bag.

I have a Stanley toolbox with my general kit. More for dealing with things stuck in the car. First aid kit, plastic gloves, pair of work gloves, WD40, the inflatable can of stuff for punctured tyres, straps for the roof bars (DH helpfully threw those in recently!), a decent torch with a good worklight side, some pocket packs of tissues, a couple of mini bags of Haribo. I have tape, a swiss army knife, and boiled sweets, suncream, lip balm, tissues, hand sanitiser etc always in the glovebox/car door. And a large bag of shopping bags also lives in the boot that can be appropriated for other uses as necessary.

I had more in terms of long life food items, but they kept getting eaten by DD. I also had water but it was drunk (multiple times) and I haven't replaced it yet.

When I am going farther afield, I usually make sure I have a blanket, extra hat and gloves, etc. And in poor weather, snow socks, and making sure stocks of food (snacks) and water. But I tend to be quite local these days.

When we have poor weather though, I bring a nice pair of shoes to work and travel in my decent foul weather gear (rain or snow gear, depending on the needs) and either snow boots or proper hiking boots - I have thought about my sailing boots once but it's never been so wet that it was necessary. Spare socks in my desk always, and an extra pair in my backpack on bad days.

My everyday bag for work is a North Face laptop backpack, and I have a waterproof cover for over it (and depending on whether I've recently travelled internationally or not, has reasonable emergency kit in it but may not currently have the swiss army knife). My everyday coat is a long Ilse Jacobsen raincoat. Because I commute by train and the platform is on the coast and bitter and occasionally very wet; and then I have a bit of a walk after that.

I have well worked out alternative routes for different kinds of bad weather - snow means 1 route involving buses; rain (of the catastrophic and flooding level) usually means driving so I have control. If I had to abandon the car, I would be happy walking long distance.