Preparing the car for summer

artichoke

hi all

well in a royal wedding avoidance tactic i have just spent the last few hours cleaning the inside of our car.... i dont think it had ever been done before i inherited it from an uncle:o

anyway as i now hope we have got rid of the last of the winter snow and ice I have taken out the Winter Emergency box i keep in the back and want to repack it with a Summer Emergency box....

obviously all the car emergency stuff will stay - torches, first aid kit, waterproofs for all of us etc...

but what summer stuff do you keep in the car? We usually travel with kids 5 and 6 and a dog...

I have put in childrens sun tan cream, a bat and ball game, a picnic rug, some car bingo game printouts (for stuck in traffic jams), disinfectant hand wash, kids travel sickeness tablets .....spare dog lead, dog bowl, plastic bags...

anything else you can think might be usefull? It is a small car so not room for loads...

well at least the royal wedding enabled me to do a job i have been avoiding for months;)

art

MessyTessie

A couple of bottles of water and some snacks that will keep for those traffic jams (once bitten twice shy here), plus vomit box with spares clothes and essential if travelling too far.

bravobeastie

breakdown company details and make sure the jack is in place and also that spare is in good condition and correctly inflated. I keep a small tyre inflater thingy in the boot that can be plugged into the cigarette lighter, takes a while but handy to have

Pink.

Hi artichoke,

I would add insurance details and a disposable camera to bravobeastie's excellent list, as well as wet wipes or a couple of flannels considering that your children are still quite small.

As we have a board specifically dedicated to motoring I'll move your thread over there later to see if you can get more suggestions.

Pink

Agapanthus

As opposed to freezing up in winter, in summer cars have a tendency to overheat. Unless your car is fairly new, I'd suggest a can of water!

meritaten

add an insect treatment spray or pen to the first aid kit - I dunno why but wasps do tend to get into cars! also, some of those little fans - very handy if you are stuck in traffic. a pack of wet wipes, and a couple of beach towels. and dont forget all that silver and pound coins you are going to need for car parking.

bravobeastie

ooh also, our local BP garages use the tokens for the air machine. My husband buys a few at a time and we keep 1 in each of our cars. I don't normally carry change with me so this has been helpful to keep 1 in the ashtray

valk_scot

When my kids were younger I kept a spare set of old clothes (t-shirt and shorts/trousers) in the car for each of them. Great for if we were out and about and they fell into something, or if they had good clothes on and we wanted to make an impromptu play stop. Anything nearly outgrown, shabby or jumble sale is just fine.

A towel.

A box containing drinks and snacks...few tins of fizzy drink or orange juice boxes, packet of plain biscuits and some crisps. Instant picnic!

A small pocket kite.

Broomstick

Sunglasses? Sun hat to shade your eyes when driving in really bright conditions?
This isn't a seasonal thing, but I also keep change for the toll bridge that I cross on a regular basis and enough of the correct coinage to pay for 2 hours parking in the nearest big town just in case of emergencies (and not donate extra to the machine because I don't have the right coins!)

zippychick

as this has dropped down the OS board ive moved it to the motoring board

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Zip

poly1

Can I just add, if you pack snacks make sure that they do not contain chocolate or anything else that melts or gets sticky when left in a hot car for a long time! They can create quite a mess and are a bit inedible after a hot summer in the car!