How To Get Good At Using A Glove Box - T-Tees - Your Answers Await, Life's Questions Unraveled

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Documents

Your glovebox may seem like the sensible place to keep all your car’s documents, but it’s the first place thieves will look if they break into your car. If the vehicle itself is stolen, you’ve handed them all the documentation they’d need to sell the car easily!

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Any document that features personal information or your home address (including that invoice from your last car service) should be kept well away from your vehicle. Some unfortunate people have even had their home burgled before they’ve realised their car was missing! Others have had information used to make applications for credit cards and all sorts of ID theft.

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Valuables

While it’s a good idea to stow valuables out of sight if you don’t want to take them with you, sadly your glovebox isn’t a safe! Try to plan in advance and either leave your valuables at home or take them with you when you leave the car.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that a lot of car insurance policies don’t cover personal items stolen from your car – if you regularly have to leave your phone or other expensive items in your vehicle, make sure you check your policy to see if they’re covered.

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Electronics

These days, the latest electronics would definitely be counted as valuables, but they get their own category here purely for storage issues. Extreme temperatures do not agree with devices and leaving electronics in particularly cold or hot conditions can result in permanent battery damage.

A phone exposed to heat exceeding 35˚C (95˚F) can be left with data loss, corruption and battery damage. Seeing as a parked car left in 35˚C (95˚F) can reach 46˚C (115˚F) in just an hour, it’s pretty easy to see why your phone shouldn’t be stored in what would act like an oven within the car! It’s not just the heat that can cause problems for your electronics – and again the glovebox won’t provide any protection – extremely cold temperatures can cause shorter battery life, display problems and unexpected shut-downs.

Money

It might be a long time since we kept a cheque book in the glovebox! But people are often guilty of stowing their wallet or purse in the glove compartment if they don’t need them for the trip they’re making. As before, your glovebox isn’t a safe and thieves will make short work of pinching cash, or accessing your accounts if you’ve left cards in the car.

Keys

It might seem obvious, but many of us make the mistake of keeping our bulky main keys, spare sets and/or garage door openers in our parked cars. If you’ve left documents showing your address in your glove box too, you’ve just made burgling your home as easy as it gets. It might seem convenient to keep keys in the car, but for the sake of carrying a bag or finally putting up that hook for the spare set at home, we think it’s worth the effort to stay safe.

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Batteries

If you are organised enough to keep a supply of batteries on hand we’d usually be congratulating you, but heat speeds up the chemical deterioration of batteries and can even cause them to leak. Don’t store any loose batteries or any battery powered items in your car when it may over-heat or they could cause damage to the item itself or whatever they’re stored in.

Aerosols

There’s a reason that things stored in aerosol cans—like hairspray, spray paint, and deodorant—all have storage temperature recommendations printed on the bottle. If left out in extreme temperatures, these cans can expand and explode, and their contents are highly flammable.

Medicine and Sunscreen

Medicines and sunscreens are generally supposed to be kept at room temperature so this is another tip affected by our usually glorious weather. These products become less stable and less effective in heat. Liquids can even reach a temperature where they explode… which isn’t a great result for the rest of your glovebox contents.

Plastic water bottles

While it seems like a sensible idea to keep water in the car, it really needs to be something you refresh every trip. A plastic bottle left in the car for a long time could have leaked harmful substances like BPA into the water and/or may have started to harbour microorganisms.

Chewing gum

If you like to keep something minty in the glovebox to ensure you have fresh breath, make sure you choose mints over gum. If the car gets hot you want to avoid the inevitable sticky mess and although unlikely, in the winter, if it freezes, not only will it be flavourless but it could also break your teeth!

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What should be in your glovebox

‘Should’ is obviously different for every person – some of us may feel that a long journey without a stash of lollies in the glovebox is impossible – but we’re using the word ‘should’ for two different categories here, ‘essential’ and ‘helpful’. Plus, remember that these are items for your glovebox, not a full list of what should be kept in your entire car!

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