We are on the move quite a bit, and plans can change at the drop of a hat. I have always carried a ton of stuff with me. And more often than not I have needed it. I also drove a fifteen year old Honda up until about two years ago. I broke down, more than once. But it was never the end of the world, for two reasons: my husband always came and rescued me, and I always prepared.
Fast forward to today, my kids are a little older, but I still watch two little ones and have nieces and nephews so I feel like I have been in diaper bag mode for more than a decade now.
But at least most of that stuff I can keep in the car. If you are wondering what you should keep in your car for an emergency this is a great place to start:
First off. The trunk. There are just certain things that I always keep with me, and we keep these in the trunk because we use them A LOT.
This box has a lid and I just throw all of our stuff right on top it. Here's what's in the box:
- Bottled water
- Sunglasses for everyone
- Five Go Picnic Meals
- Socks for everyone (Bowling, anyone?)
- Changing pad and extra diapers and wipes.
- Sunscreen
- Insect repellent
- Extra outfit for both boys plus the two little kiddos that I watch
- Diaper wipes
- Lysol wipes
- Empty plastic grocery bags
- Bandaids
- Children's Advil
- Gatorade
- Extra reusable bag
- Toothbrushes and toothpaste for everyone in the family
- Lotion (I have very dry skin and don't really want to carry a large thing of lotion in my purse)
- Two extra bottles of the formula that the baby I watch drinks
- Dog leash
- Aunt Flo items
- And lastly, I have a collapsible dog bowl and a Frisbee that I took off the top so you could see what's in the box. You never want to be unprepared to go to the dog park.
I also have really nifty stow and go seats in the van. Since we usually need the seats I have filled the space up with things that I might need in an emergency. In there I have:
- More bottled water. We actually go through this fairly often but I try to always keep most of a case in there.
- A box of Cliff Bars. I started keeping these in the car when all those people were stuck on the highway for days after evacuating Houston because of a hurricane. I cannot imagine being stuck in a situation like that and having noting for my kids. Cliff bars have a lot of calories in a small amount of space.
- A blanket. These are usually out and floating around the seats during the winter time but I keep them in there year round. Surprisingly enough, we have used them this summer, both for picnic blankets and to cover our legs at the drive in.
- The backpack. This bag has quite a few things in it. Most of them, hopefully I will never have to use but I would rather have them and never need them than need them and not have them. Here is what is in the backpack.
This is our first aid kit. - Johnson & Johnson kit that came with band aids, a glow stick, and emergency blanket and several emergency medications.
I added:
- Benadryl spray
- Extra first aid supplies
- Neosporin spray
- Tampons
- Tecnu. If you don't know what Tecnu is, then you have probably never had a kid crawl through poison ivy. Consider yourself lucky!
We also have a few things to keep the kids entertained:
- Coloring Books and colored pencils (crayons melt and markers dry out)
- Playing cards
- Notepads and pens
- Plus an emergency sewing kit and superglue. Not for entertainment reasons. :)
I also have a bag full of any kind of medication we might need. Because we have kids and a senior citizen that live with us I wouldn't want to get stuck without something we need.
In this bag:
- Advil
- Tylenol
- Cough Drops
- Diarrhea medication
- Visine
- Cold medicine
- Pepto Bismol chewables
- Prilosec and Tums
- Inhaler
- Migraine medicine
This bag of medication fits nicely on the top of another bag I have in the backpack. Here are it's contents:- More sunscreen
- Aveeno Dry Skin treatment
- Diaper/Puppy Poop bags
- Bug Spray
- Disposable Toothbrushes
- More tampons (I never want to need these and not have them!)
- Germ X
- Kid safe hand sanitizer
- Aquafor
- Extra diaper
- Wipes
- Headband
- Ponytails
- Mrs. Meyer's Chapped Face Stick
- Chapstick
- Bullfrog combination sunscreen/bug spray
- Clean Well hand and surface sanitizer
- More diaper wipes
- Extra reusable bag
- Snacks: beef jerky, peanut butter, and almonds
- Spoon to eat the peanut butter with
- Five Hour Energy
- A few extra trash bags (I got the Febreeze kind so they help make everything smell nice!)
- A list of emergency phone numbers. I not only have important family and friends but I also have local police departments, fire departments, animal control, our insurance company, AAA, our doctors' office numbers and anything I thought I might need if my cell phone was dead.
- A whistle. This could be classified under entertainment for the kids but I thought that it was a great addition.
- Emergency blanket
- Mini Tarp
- Knife
- Camp Towels (These things are AMAZING! It is like having a whole roll of paper towels that takes up about the space of a roll of quarters.)
- Breathing masks. We have three people in our family with breathing issues. If there is ever a natural disaster like a fire, I am going to be glad we have these.
I also have one more spot in my van that I like to store a few things. I have drawer under on of our seats. In that I keep:
- A pair of work gloves
- Two lighters
- Panchos for everyone
- Bright colored piece of fabric, in case I ever need to flag someone down
- Extra bulbs and fuses for the car
- Multitool
- Small manicure set with tweezers and scissors. This has been used much more for splinters than actual fingernails. :)
I am sure that there will always be times when I wish I had something with me and I just didn't. But hopefully, with these things I can handle most situations that arise. It is kind of like home owner's insurance... it is much better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Did I miss anything? What do you keep in your car that I should include in mine? Let me know in the comments.
No comments :
Post a Comment