13 Items to Keep in Your Glove Compartment at All Times

Glove compartments have been standard equipment in most cars for nearly a century, once serving as a storage spot for driving gloves (hence the name) and nowadays a catchall for everything from vital documents to often-forgotten junk. Right now, your glove box is probably filled to the brim, but is it holding what you need?

Here are 13 essential items that you should be carrying in your glove compartment at all times.

1. Registration and proof of insurance

Make sure these are current, and discard expired copies. Also, consider keeping these in a special color-coded envelope so that you won’t have to fish for them when they are needed (for example, during a traffic stop).

If you’re concerned about vehicle theft and exposing the personal information printed on your registration and proof of insurance, however, check with your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles or your state or local police department about requirements regarding paper versions of these documents.

Most states allow drivers to show a digital version of their insurance documents during a traffic stop by the police. Most states, however, will not accept a digital version of your registration. To keep your registration and the information on it safe, you can choose to carry it in your wallet instead. Just remember that whoever is driving the car should also carry the registration. Also, if you’re driving out of state, be aware of the registration and proof of insurance requirements for each state you’ll be driving through.

Also worth noting: Never leave your vehicle title in your car. That’s all a thief needs to sell the vehicle to a legitimate buyer. And, of course, never store your driver’s license in the car.

2. Flashlight

Choose a compact flashlight with an LED bulb. Then, make sure you have installed quality batteries, and replace them once a year.

3. Tire pressure gauge

A compact pencil-style gauge is easy to stow and use to ensure that your tires are always properly inflated.

4. Area maps

GPS-based navigation systems are wonderful—but only right up to the moment they fail. Paper maps, on the other hand, are not subject to the whims of electronics and satellite reception problems. Maps of the area where you are traveling could help you navigate home when all else fails.

5. Note pad and pencil/pen

You never know when you might have to write something down, even in a world with a smartphone seemingly in every pocket.

6. Owner’s manual

Your vehicle owner’s manual is a font of information critical to your car’s maintenance and operation, including information about handy features that you may not know even exist on your vehicle.

7. Ice scraper

These small, flat tools, which fit perfectly in a car glove box, are a wintertime driving necessity in many areas. (If you forget to carry one, however, a credit card may suffice.) 

8. Simple hand tools

Some small tool kits come with screwdrivers that include flat, Phillips, and Torx bits as well as pliers for little tasks like tightening a battery connection or removing the cover from a fuse box.

9. Microfiber towel (white)

This versatile cloth can help you clean up small spills as well as serve as a distress signal when displayed on the exterior of your car in the event of a breakdown.

10. Phone charger or cable

Most cars now have a USB port. If yours does not, there are adapters that fit in the power port, otherwise known as the cigarette lighter socket. (Also, if you have a new car, check the USB port as automakers are moving from USB-A to USB-C sockets.) If your car has a 120VAC outlet (which is unusual but becoming more common), carry a battery-powered phone charger—and keep it fully charged.

11. Nonperishable snacks

You never know when the pangs of hunger will strike, especially if you happen to be stranded on the roadside.

12. First-aid kit

At a minimum, a first-aid kit should include sterile gauze, bandages, sealed antibacterial wipes, bee sting ointment, and tweezers. You can add medications for allergies or other ailments as needed, but know that these items will be subjected to extreme cold in winter and extreme heat when the car is parked in the sun in summertime.

Also keep in mind that some larger first-aid kits, sometimes labeled “glove-box unfriendly,” may fit in the storage compartment included in some rear-seat folding center armrests or in a center console compartment.

13. Tool to facilitate a vehicle escape

Consider this a worst-case-scenario device. These tools are designed to break a side or back window to provide an additional escape path in the event of an accident that jams the doors closed. Some also have a seatbelt cutter, just in case the buckle’s release mechanism is made inoperable in a crash.

These devices should work with tempered glass, which is used in many side windows; however, some side windows are made of laminated glass (as is the windshield), which would be much more difficult, perhaps even impossible, to break to facilitate an escape if the doors are jammed shut.

Additional items to make space for

Along with these glove box essentials, consider keeping these items in the trunk or a storage compartment at the rear of your vehicle.

• Triangle reflectors
• Jumper cables
• Small folding snow shovel
• Blanket(s)
• Container of water
• Wipes
• Hand sanitizer
• Traction medium, such as sand or cat litter clay
• 12-volt air compressor

Being prepared can make all the difference when a problem arises. That preparation starts with having the right essentials for your car glove compartment.