Foggy car windows are one of the more annoying things that your car can do to make your day a little worse – not to mention; that it can be pretty dangerous. Foggy car windows mostly happen in the colder months. However, the steamy summer months can make for steamy windows. Either way, foggy car windows are annoying and dangerous. Even though most cars have a defrost setting, sometimes you need a little more help to keep your car windows from fogging up. 

A car with foggy windows is not safe to drive

It doesn’t take much explanation to know why a foggy windshield or windows could be dangerous. Anytime something obscures a driver’s or even passengers’ vision in a car, it’s a dangerous situation. The thing that makes foggy car windows so dangerous is not just the lack of visibility but the time spent fooling around with the air-con controls to get the fog to dissipate. There is also the chance that your defrost fails. In this event having a DIY backup could be pretty useful.

However, the Family Handyman claims to have a trick that might make dealing with foggy car windows less dangerous and less frequent. You only need a tube sock, a roll of packing tape, and some cat litter. 

Can you de-fog your car windows with a tube sock, some tape, and cat litter? 

• A roll of tape
• A tube sock
• Non-clumping kitty litter

Family Handyman says the trick is simple. All you have to do is take the roll of tape, put it at the top of the sock, and roll the ends over so that the cuff makes a large opening. Once the tape is in place, and the sock is ready to be filled, pour in the (non-clumping) kitty litter. You should fill the sock up to about where your ankle would be. At this point, you can take the roll of tape out and tie the end of the sock to keep the litter inside. (If you live in a super humid environment, feel free to fill the sock up more for a stronger effect.)

“The idea is that the litter, designed to absorb cat urine, will absorb the moisture in your car that causes the glass to fog up,” explains Roslyn McKenna, car insurance publisher for Finder.com.

McKenna and her team at Finder tested out the trick, and did it work? It sure did. “During our test, the car windshield and windows didn’t fog up at all,” she told Reader’s Digest.

What do you do with it? 

The “litter bomb,” as he calls it, is meant to act as a homemade de-humidifier. This will make the inside of your car drier, meaning the condensation that turns into fog and even sometimes ice gets trapped in the sock.

For best results, Family Handyman says to put the sock on the dash, somewhere where it won’t obstruct the driver’s vision or fall on the driver’s side of the floor. This won’t always keep the inside of your windshield perfectly fog- or condensation-free, but you can also use it to wipe the windshield. Allegedly, the litter will directly suck up the moisture leaving a cleaner windshield. 

However you get your windshield and windows fog-free is up to you, but it pays to make sure you have a plan for efficiently clearing your line of sight any time you’re in a car.