How to Store Contacts Without a Case: Safe Emergency Options
There is no completely safe household substitute for a proper contact lens case. If you have no clean lens case and approved disinfecting solution, do not store contacts in water, eye drops, homemade saline, a drinking glass, a cup, or a plastic bag. Discard daily disposable lenses. For reusable lenses, wear your glasses until you can clean and store the lenses correctly, and replace the lenses if contamination is possible.
Forgetting your contact lens case can be stressful, especially when you are away from home. The safest response is not to improvise a container. It is to protect your eyes, avoid sleeping in the lenses, and obtain a new sealed case and the correct care solution as soon as possible.
If emergencies happen often, carrying a spare pair of daily disposable contact lenses can make travel and long days away from home much easier.
What Is the Safest Option in an Emergency?
The safest option depends on the type of contact lenses you wear:
- Daily disposable lenses: remove them with clean, dry hands and throw them away. Never store or reuse a daily lens after removal. Put on a fresh pair later or use your glasses.
- Two-week or monthly reusable lenses: buy a new sealed contact lens case and use fresh disinfecting solution intended for your lenses. Follow the complete cleaning, rubbing, rinsing, and storage instructions for your care system.
- No proper case or solution available: use your glasses. If you cannot store reusable lenses exactly as directed, discarding them is safer than putting a potentially contaminated lens back in your eye.
Important: do not keep wearing your contacts simply because you have nowhere to store them, and do not sleep in them as an emergency workaround.
What to Do When You Have No Contact Lens Case
1. Wash and Dry Your Hands
Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before touching your eyes or lenses. Dry them with a clean, lint-free towel. Wet or dirty hands can transfer microorganisms, residue, and fibers to the lens surface.
2. Decide Whether the Lenses Must Be Discarded
If you are wearing daily disposables, remove and discard them. If you wear reusable contacts, consider where the lenses have been and whether they may already be contaminated. A lens that has touched water, a dirty surface, saliva, an unsuitable container, or an unknown liquid should not be put back into your eye.
3. Get a Sealed Case and the Correct Solution
Visit a pharmacy, optical store, supermarket, or other nearby retailer that sells lens-care products. Buy a new, sealed case and a fresh bottle of the care solution appropriate for your lenses. Do not top up old solution or transfer solution into an unlabelled travel bottle.
If you are unsure which care system is suitable, check the instructions supplied with your lenses and solution or ask an eye-care professional. You can also read our guide to contact lens solution and its ingredients.
4. Keep the Left and Right Lenses Separate
Use the clearly marked left and right chambers of a proper contact lens case. This is particularly important when the two eyes require different powers or other prescription values. Do not place both lenses in the same chamber.
5. Follow the Full Disinfection Time
Clean, rinse, disinfect, and store reusable lenses exactly as directed for your lens-care system. Use fresh solution every time and allow the lenses to remain in the case for the full disinfection period stated on the product label. A quick rinse is not a substitute for disinfection.
What Should You Never Use to Store Contact Lenses?
Many popular emergency “hacks” can expose contacts to contamination or fail to disinfect them. Avoid all of the following.
Tap, Bottled, Filtered, or Distilled Water
No type of water is a contact lens storage solution. Water is not sterile, does not disinfect lenses, and can expose the lens surface to organisms that may cause a serious eye infection. Do not rinse the lenses or the storage case with water unless the instructions for your specific care system explicitly require a particular procedure.
Saliva
Never put a contact lens in your mouth or use saliva to wet it. Saliva contains microorganisms and is not a cleaning or disinfecting solution.
Eye Drops or Rewetting Drops
Lubricating and rewetting drops may make approved contact lenses feel more comfortable when used as directed, but they are not designed to clean, disinfect, or store lenses overnight.
Saline Solution
Sterile saline may be used for a limited rinsing step in some lens-care routines, but it does not disinfect contact lenses. It should not replace a multipurpose disinfecting solution or the complete care system recommended for your lenses.
Homemade Salt Water
Do not make contact lens solution at home. Boiling water and adding salt does not create a reliably sterile, correctly balanced lens-care product. Homemade mixtures can leave lenses contaminated or damaged.
A Glass, Cup, Bowl, Bottle Cap, or Plastic Bag
Household containers are not designed for contact lens disinfection. They may hold residue, leak, allow the lenses to dry, mix up the left and right lenses, or contaminate the solution. Covering a cup with paper or plastic does not turn it into a safe lens case.
Ordinary Hydrogen Peroxide
Never apply household hydrogen peroxide to contact lenses. A hydrogen-peroxide contact lens care system can be used only with the dedicated neutralizing case supplied for that system and for the full neutralization time stated in its instructions. Saline does not neutralize peroxide. Putting an unneutralized lens into the eye can cause severe burning and injury.
What If You Have Contact Lens Solution but No Case?
Fresh solution alone is not enough. It must be used with a clean contact lens case designed for the care system. Do not pour the solution into a drinking glass, cup, food container, bottle cap, or bag.
Look for a new sealed case nearby. If you cannot obtain one, remove and discard daily lenses. With reusable lenses, using your glasses and replacing the contacts is safer than improvising storage and later inserting lenses that may have become contaminated.
Never Sleep in Contacts as a Storage Alternative
Having no case does not make sleeping in contact lenses a safe choice. Overnight wear can reduce the amount of oxygen reaching the cornea and increase the chance of irritation or infection, especially when a lens is not specifically intended for extended wear.
Remove the lenses before sleeping. If they are daily disposables, throw them away. If you cannot safely disinfect reusable lenses, discard them and use glasses. Learn more in our article about sleeping with contact lenses.
What to Do After the Emergency
Do not reuse a daily disposable lens after removing it. For a reusable lens that was kept in a proper case with the correct fresh solution, complete the full disinfection process before wearing it again.
If a reusable lens touched water, saliva, an unsuitable surface, an improvised container, or an unknown liquid, replacing it is the safer option. A lens can look clean and still be contaminated.
Remove your contacts and seek prompt advice from an eye-care professional if you develop eye pain, persistent redness, unusual sensitivity to light, discharge, swelling, or reduced or blurred vision. Do not wear contacts again until you have been told it is safe to do so.
How to Prevent the Same Problem Next Time
A compact contact lens emergency kit can prevent rushed decisions. Keep it in your handbag, backpack, car carry-on, or desk drawer, as appropriate.
- Carry your glasses and a protective glasses case.
- Pack a spare, unopened pair of daily disposable lenses.
- For reusable lenses, carry a clean case and travel-size solution in its original labelled bottle.
- Check expiry dates and replace used or expired items.
- Replace your lens case regularly, generally about every three months or sooner if the care-system instructions say so.
- Set a reorder reminder before you run out of lenses or care products.
Daily lenses are especially convenient for travel because every new pair comes in a sealed blister pack and is discarded after use. Browse daily disposable contacts or compare them with monthly contact lenses before your next trip.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Store Contact Lenses in Water for One Night?
No. Do not store contacts in tap, bottled, filtered, or distilled water, even for one night. Water does not disinfect lenses and can expose them to harmful organisms.
Can I Store Contacts in Saline Solution?
No. Saline does not disinfect contact lenses. Use the complete cleaning and disinfecting system intended for your reusable lenses.
Can I Store Contacts in Eye Drops?
No. Eye drops and rewetting drops are not storage or disinfection products. Use them only for the purpose and in the manner stated on their label.
Can I Put Contacts in a Cup If I Have Fresh Solution?
No. A cup, glass, bowl, or other household container is not a safe replacement for a proper contact lens case. Obtain a new sealed case or discard the lenses if safe storage is not possible.
Should I Throw Away My Contacts If I Have No Case?
Discard daily disposables after removal. For reusable lenses, obtain the correct case and solution immediately. If the lenses may be contaminated or cannot be stored and disinfected correctly, replacing them is the safer choice.
Can I Sleep in My Contacts Until I Find a Case?
No. Do not use overnight wear as a substitute for safe storage. Remove the contacts before sleeping and use glasses until you have a fresh pair or can care for reusable lenses correctly.
Final Takeaway
If you need to know how to store contacts without a case, the key point is simple: do not use a household substitute. A new sealed contact lens case and the correct fresh disinfecting solution are the only appropriate storage setup for reusable lenses. Daily disposable contacts should be discarded after removal.
Prepare for your next long day or trip by keeping glasses and a spare pair with you. When it is time to restock, shop contact lenses online at ContactLenses4Us using the prescription parameters you already know.
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