Yes, You Can!

A couple of good folks have expressed incredulity about my recent post regarding the items in my car's glove box.

Do I really have all that stuff in my glove box? Yes!

Could they do the same in their car's glove box? I don't know! Glove boxes vary so in dimensions.

But it made me curious: Exactly how big is my glove box? So I took every last thing out of mine:

L-R, top row: water, cameras, energy bars, pen/flashlight/tire gauge set.
L-R, middle row: Registration papers, "Need Service" placard, lint roller, polka-dot bag (filled with paper napkins), various meds, sunblock, "Need Help! banner.
L-R, bottom row: Maps and emergency-help brochures, sunglasses, wipes for hands and clothing, cassette adaptor to play The Boy's iPod, chewing gum.

Yup, that's all of it , except for the small smattering of beach sand at the very back of the box. I left that for the photos below because it actually helps you see the interior dimensions. (Sure, sure....)

Anyhow, my glove box's interior measures 14 inches wide...

By 9 inches deep at the deepest point...

and about 5 or 6 inches high, but it's not a rectangle at all. It's narrower at the back, bigger at the front. Which means...(counting furiously on her fingers)...uhh...I can't figure out how many cubic inches. I was a Lit. major, people!

I can say it's fairly generous, as glove boxes go, but not quite big enough to stuff a young pug in, as my lovely assistant Pao ("Vanna") Pug now demonstrates:

Uh-uh, lady, I ain't climbing in there!

If your glove box isn't this generous, don't give up. There may still be pockets of space around your driver's seat that you can use to store emergency items.

Like, in the console between the two front seats? Two bottles of water easily tuck into mine:

Or do you have room under the driver's seat? My under-seat area is pretty filled up with gizmos to raise, lower, and tilt the seat, but I could probably slip a map or two in there if I needed:

(My old Mommy Van had a huge space under the seat; I actually kept a plastic bin there, filled with snacks, juice boxes, and other things to keep the Car-Seat Set from having meltdowns.)

Or do you have a pocket built into the driver's door?

My door's pocket could probably take four or five bottles of water, total:

Is there space on your sun visor? It may be a little messy-looking, but the visor is a good place to store signs,, registration papers, and small maps. (And once you flip the visor up, this stuff hardly shows):

Look around; reachable storage might be behind you. Without twisting around at all, I can access a pocket behind my car's "shotgun" seat. If you can, too, then consider keeping emergency items there, as well:

So if you're thinking you can't tuck all this stuff into your car, maybe you really can.

Be resourceful. Think pro-actively. Think outside the [glove] box. What would you want to be able to reach in an emergency? What do you really need to squirrel away in your car?

Just please, no small dogs.