🚗 Sharing My Car Emergency Kit

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As my kid gets older, I find myself leaving our house more for excursions. While going out is a great way to spend some quality time, I feel like it's also inevitable that something, suddenly, out of nowhere will happen.

A spill.
A scraped knee.
My kid is suddenly starving five minutes after you left the house.

After a few of these situations, I finally decided to create a simple car emergency kit that lives in my trunk. Nothing extreme, but just the things that have actually saved me more than once while out with kids.

Here’s what I actually keep in my car now.

The Simple Bin That Holds Everything

The first thing that made this system work was giving everything a dedicated container.

Otherwise items slowly roll around the trunk and disappear.

I use this collapsible car trunk organizer to hold the main emergency supplies. And my goodness, it holds EVERYTHING. All the compartments helps to keep everything organized, and contained, so it's not rolling around in the trunk.

The “Real Life Happens” Supplies

So what goes in this aforementioned organizer? These are the items I use the most often.

My trunk kit includes:

• extra wipes
• paper towels
• a small blanket
• a change of clothes for my kiddo (I change this out depending on the season)
• a few plastic bags
• a mini first aid kit (fever reducers, band-aids, antiseptic wipes, ointment, and a pair of nitrile gloves): I put this together from my existing medicine cabinet, but I know there are some pretty comprehensive traveler's first aid kits out there.

A Flashlight and Simple Roadside Tools

Even if you don’t use them often, a few basic safety items are worth having.

My car kit includes:

• a flashlight
• a phone charging cable
• jumper cables
• a small reflective safety triangle

A simple roadside emergency kit usually includes several of these items together and is an easy way to cover the basics. I toss this into my organizer, and even though hopefully you never need them, it’s nice knowing they’re there.

Emergency Snacks and Water

If you have kids, you already know how quickly hunger can become a full crisis. That’s why I always keep a few shelf-stable snacks in the trunk kit.

Things like:

• granola bars
• crackers
• fruit snacks

This has saved us on long car rides, unexpected errands, and more than one “I’m starving” moment.

The Small “Front Seat Mom Pouch”

While the trunk kit handles bigger emergencies, I also keep a small pouch in the center console with items I use more frequently.

This pouch usually contains:

• hand sanitizer
• hair ties
• a pen
• a small pack of tissues

Bonus Round

Now these are things that I have in our car, but aren't 100% necessary. They're nice to have, sure, but you'll survive without them.

• Rechargeable car vacuum cleaner to clean up those crumbs that will inevitably fall from your kiddo's snacks
• Car trash can for when your kid learns that trash goes in the trash can and not on the car floor. One can dream.

This System Works... Most of the time

Before I made this change, I was constantly saying things like:

“I wish we had wipes.”
“Just try to hold your arm up till we get home and put on a bandaid?”
“Why didn't you eat before we left home?”

Now those situations are much easier to handle, though let's be honest, it doesn't always go perfectly. But honestly, when you’re out with kids, a little preparation can go a long way, and I've found that I'm at least... 60% less frazzled while driving. Win for me!