Let’s talk summer car essentials.
It’s summertime, the kids are home, and you feel like you live in your car taking your kids from place to place. Playdates, camps, fun field trips, you’re trying to pack in a ton of fun for your kids during the summer. Your life will be MUCH easier during this season of shuttling children if you have some essentials stashed in your car, ready to go. That way, the fun doesn’t have to stop!
Sure, it’s important to have essentials in your car for your kids, but don’t forget about summer car essentials for mom too! Mom needs to have everything she needs close at hand to keep the summer fun going.
Summer Car Essentials
Kids
Before you have kids, no one ever tells you just how much stuff they need. It’s extremely wise to keep some of this stuff in the trunk of your car. Which kid stuff you’ll want in your car essential stash will depend on the season and the ages of your kids. We will focus on summer car essentials for young children (babies, toddlers, and preschoolers) below.
Diapers
If you have a kid who isn’t yet toilet trained, you never know when you’re going to need to change a diaper. And when you need a diaper, you NEED a diaper. Don’t roll the dice with this one, friends.
Wipes
In addition to needing wipes for diaper changing purposes, wipes are also darn useful things to keep in the car at all times. They come in handy for everything from sticky hands to snotty noses and everything in between.
Hand sanitizer
No matter how old your kids are or even if you have your kids in the car, hand sanitizer is a non-negotiable item to keep in your summer car essentials kit. If you or your kids touch anything out in the wild, hand sanitizer to the rescue! Can you tell I had kids in a global pandemic?
Towels
My mother always had a beach towel or two in her trunk or under the driver’s seat of her car. It seemed like we used the thing several times a week. I remembered how useful having a beach towel in the car was when I was a kid, so I started keeping towels in my car as soon as I became a mom.
I cannot tell you how many times I have used the emergency towels shoved under my seat. Need a place to sit on the ground? Need a shield to change a kid in the trunk? Have a liquid spill (bodily or otherwise)? Need to eat lunch at a rest stop but all the picnic tables are dirty? Your emergency towel fits the bill!
Change of clothes/shoes
You never know when your kids will need a change of clothes. Sure, your mind probably jumps right to bodily fluids, but there are lots of other reasons to need a change of clothes too. If your kids will be eating at any time (let’s be real, they eat constantly), clothes can get messy and sticky. Weather could also require a change of clothes, as can activities that could involve stepping or falling into mud.
For kids under about 8 or so, I recommend including an entire head-to-toe outfit in your summer car essentials stash. That means shirt, shorts, underwear, socks, and shoes. For older kids and mom, an extra shirt and a pair of cheap flip flops should do the trick.
Sun protection
Every person who regularly rides in the car should have a hat and a pair of sunglasses that lives in your summer car essentials kit. You don’t even need to be driving to an activity to need one or both of these items. I frequently turn around a bend in the road only to hear a chorus of “too sunny!” from the backseat. If your kids each have a hat and sunglasses within arm’s reach, all you need to do is simply remind them of their handy sun protection rather than deal with screaming about the sun being in their eyes.
Just remember sunscreen shouldn’t be stored in the car. It degrades when it’s held at higher temperatures, so it won’t provide the SPF listed on the label. Sunscreen is an item to keep in the bag that goes with you wherever you go. You know the bag. You have the bag. Store it there.
Bug spray
In addition to sun protection, you should keep bug protection front of mind during the summer. That makes bug spray a must-have in your summer car essentials kit. Things like blueberry picking or an impromptu hike get a lot more fun when you don’t have to worry about mosquitoes or ticks.
First aid
If you’re like me and think a first aid kit has to be expansive, don’t fret. I’m not suggesting you have a complete tackle box full of medical items in your car at all times (although my husband has multiple tackle boxes in our medical closet at home). Just keep a few basic first aid items in your glove box or center console. I’m talking a few band-aids (in your kids’ favorite characters if you can), some gauze, and a travel tube of Aquaphor.
Stroller/Baby carrier
If you have a very young child, you need a child wrangling device in your car at all times. It is truly a summer car essential. This is especially true if you also have older children who need to be entertained or have pre-planned activities. I liked to baby-wear my daughter, so my Ergobaby carrier lived in my car when she was a baby. An umbrella stroller is also a good option. I hate the one we have, but my sister-in-law has a Summer Infant travel stroller that is wonderful.
Snacks
Saving the most important for last, you must have snacks in your summer car essentials kit. Although this is true all year round, it’s a bit trickier to stock your car with snacks in the summer because of the heat. It is important to choose snacks that won’t melt. Although this obviously rules out anything that contains chocolate, nut butters or nut butter alternatives can also be melting culprits when it’s hot outside.
The snacks you’re most likely to find in my car in the summer are raisins (NOT yogurt raisins), fruit snacks or fruit leather strips, Goldfish crackers, and Pirate’s Booty. I keep this last one on hand simply because I can’t help but laugh when my 2-year-old says she wants booty. Yes, apparently I am a 12-year-old boy.
Mom
Don’t forget about yourself, Mom! When you’re carting kids hither and yon during the summer, you’ll be glad you threw a few things for yourself in your kit of summer car essentials. You can absolutely buy yourself a command center organizer for all of your stuff if you like, or you can just make the best use of the center console like I do. Here’s what to make sure you have with you:
Umbrella/Rain jacket
It’s no fun to get caught in the rain without anything to keep you dry. Stash an umbrella in your summer car essentials kit to make sure you at least have some protection with you. Those small umbrellas that pop out take up next to no space – they often fit in the car door!
If you’re like me and see umbrellas as your sworn enemies, rain jackets are also pretty easy to keep in the car. When the sky turns black, you at least know your underwear won’t get soaked. Like an umbrella, rain jackets might just save your day from being a wet and miserable mess!
Reusable grocery bag
Another dang useful thing for mom to keep in the car is at least one reusable grocery bag. Not only are these good to keep in the car for actual trips to the grocery store, but this is another item that I find myself using constantly. You can stash your rain jackets in one, they’re a great place to throw that wet or dirty towel you keep in your summer car essentials kit and needed to use, and you can even use one as a car trash bag. Seriously, buy in bulk and keep them everywhere, not just in your car!
Feminine hygiene products
Look, no one likes to talk about feminine hygiene, but I’m here to tell you that you should keep a stash of your preferred product in your car at all times, not just in the summer. This is especially the case if you’re either breastfeeding and haven’t returned to your regularly scheduled cycle or if you’re of a bit more advanced age and starting down the perimenopause path. I keep my emergency feminine hygiene products in a small zipper pouch in my center console for easy access for me and a bit of a challenge for my 2-year-old to get to. Nobody needs pads stuck to the windows.
Hair ties
I have always been a ponytail or bun girl, but that has never been more the case than since I’ve had kids. My hair is just in the way all the time, so I’m constantly throwing it up into a bun. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet learned my lesson and begun to just start the day with it already out of my face. No, that would make too much sense. Instead, I’m constantly searching for a hair tie. After having to literally knot my hair one too many times, I keep an assortment of hair accessories in my car. Don’t knot your hair, friends!
Phone charger
In our increasingly connected world, our cell phones have become necessities. They also have become unable to hold a charge for longer than a few hours because we use them so much every day. Even when I’m trying not to get sucked into social media, I’m still using my phone to check the weather, use Waze to get us to the next activity, or text my mother-in-law and beg her to watch the kids for a date night. All of these things drain the phone’s battery. It’s important to have a phone charger in your summer car essentials kit so you can power up while you’re on the go.
Book
I may be delusional including a book on my list of summer car essentials, but a woman can dream, right? You may have already learned that I love to read if this isn’t your first time stopping by Sara in Season (if it is, welcome!). I love to listen to non-fiction audiobooks while I’m doing chores around the house, but I often have a hard time fitting in my fiction reads. Sometimes all I get in a day is 5 minutes in the car when I show up early to pick up my kids, so I don’t squander those opportunities. Keep a book in the car, you never know when you’ll have a chance to read a page or two.
What else do you consider to be summer car essentials? Please share your genius so we can all be prepared!