Keep the napkins in the glove box

Because the moment arrives without warning and people have the list. Many people say the napkins are for the body more than the burger: a nosebleed, a child who is sick, an upset stomach that will not wait, a cry on the way home from something. Other people add spills and bird droppings, and individual people have used them as emergency toilet paper, as a wipe to check the oil, and as a liner for the small bag of rubbish the car collects. People are honest about how ordinary this is: some people said they already kept napkins or tissues in the car, and more said the same in other notes — so if you are one of them, this page is confirmation, and if you are not, one person says the same of themselves: never once needed one.

Each has a camp, and people argue it in many discussions. Napkins against wipes, split in one discussion: napkins are free and dry and fine for ordinary mess, wipes clean properly and handle the personal messes — and some people warn wipes dry out in a hot car unless they are sealed, one person warns they are not very absorbent for a liquid spill, and in one discussion people say they leave lint on a dashboard or do not, depending on the brand. Loose napkins against a roll of paper towel, in some discussions: the roll stays in one place, holds together wet and does not scatter across the footwell. Then the other argument: pads and puppy pads against everything else, split in some discussions — the pads side says nothing absorbs a large spill like a sanitary pad or a pet training pad and they double as first aid for a nosebleed or a scrape; the other side says a roll of paper towel is cheaper, has less plastic, and you will not run out of pads on the day you need one for their actual purpose, a warning one person made plainly. People’s own decider is the mess — paper for crumbs and small spills, something more absorbent for liquid — and the climate, because heat kills wipes. Individual people keep a microfibre cloth or a kitchen towel that washes and goes back, and one keeps compressed towel tablets that expand in water. For a sick passenger, some people say containment matters more than absorbency: double-bag it, or keep sealable bags for the purpose, because one person warns a car that has been sick in and wiped without bagging keeps the smell.

People asked that too, in some discussions, and the answer they gave each other was that some people had never considered it and others had never needed it — one person says they have never once been in a situation that called for a napkin, and others answered with the time they had. In one discussion, people argue whether a glove box of drive-through napkins says something about your diet; people’s answer is that the napkins were coming home anyway and one person simply buys a cheap pack instead. Some people solve the whole problem by allowing no food or drink in the car, which works until the nosebleed. Small warnings to finish: one person says an over-stuffed glove box that will not quite shut can leave its little lamp on and flatten the battery, and one person warns hot days ruin both the napkins and the wipes if they are loose. Where else to keep them — door pockets, the boot, the seat-back — and how to clean the stain the napkin left behind are not covered here. And if you came here for the engine, the tyres or the brakes: those are not covered here.