For many people, the glove compartment in your car is for two things: paperwork and napkins, but you should be careful with those napkins!

Why Do Cars Have Glove Compartments?

Every modern vehicle has a glove compartment (or glove box), but what are these compartments actually used for?  It turns out the history of the glove compartment (or glove box as they're sometimes called) is pretty interesting.  These handy little vehicle storage spots started as a place to store your driving gloves, because when vehicles first became popular, they weren't exactly made for comfort.

AAA has a fascinating article about the history of glove compartments (truly a sentence I never thought I'd ever say), but the Readers' Digest version is that due to the lack of heating, poor quality roads, and no power steering, a solid pair of driving gloves were needed when driving, and you needed a place to store those gloves, so voila! We have glove compartments!

What Do You Keep in Your Glove Compartment?

For many people, the glove compartment is now a place to store paperwork like their registration and proof of insurance.  It's also a great place to keep your car manual, and even a tire pressure gauge.  But if you're anything like me, your glove compartment is probably mostly used for napkin storage.

Anytime I get extra napkins with my food, they go straight into the glove box, and those little napkins have saved me more times than I'd like to admit.  But it turns out, you shouldn't really store napkins in your glove box, and if you do, you need to be careful.

A Bad Morning and an (Almost) Broken Car A/C

So I had no idea this could happen, but did you know that those napkins in your glove box could get sucked into your car's air conditioner and cause issues?  I had NO idea this could happen, but it recently happened to a friend of mine.

One morning on her way to work, my friend Hannah reached over to grab a napkin out of her glove box.  Without thinking, she closed it a little too hard, and within a few seconds, her air conditioner started making a weird noise and had significantly reduced airflow.  According to Steve's Auto Repair, the blower motor is near the glove box, and if it doesn't get sealed quite right, the blower motor will suck lightweight items into it, causing issues for your air conditioner.

It’s OK to store items, like an owner’s manual, in the glove box. However, we suggest that you avoid keeping napkins and lightweight paper in it.

The blower motor is drawing in air and sometimes if it’s not sealed quite right it will suck up those items.

We recommend that you store them in the center console, where there isn’t a vacuum or fan that’s bringing in air that will circulate throughout the vehicle.

Luckily for Hannah, there was a video on YouTube (what can't you find online?) that had clear instructions for fixing the issue, and within a few minutes, she was able to clear out the napkin.  Thankfully, it was a fairly easy fix, but this was something that I had no idea could even happen! So take those napkins out and put them into your center console!