Do you live in a location with a harsh winter climate? If so, then you know how winter can make it challenging to drive a car. Whether it’s getting a car to start in subzero temperatures, opening frozen doors, or driving on snowy or icy roads, winter creates all sorts of car problems. One of the most frustrating problems, particularly if you park your car outside of a garage, is ice buildup on the windshield. However, if you park your car in a specific direction, you can reduce the amount of ice.

To reduce the ice on your windshield, park your car facing East

Many of us have experienced the scenario in which we wake up on a cold winter morning and then head outside to the car to drive to work. However, upon reaching the car, one sees an unwelcome surprise: a thick layer of ice on the windshield.

We let out a sigh of frustration, grab the ice scraper, and proceed to chip off the ice. Sometimes there’s not too much ice, and one can quickly scrape away the ice from the windshield. Other times, though, there’s a massive buildup of ice, which requires an extensive session of ice scraping. This results in exhaustion, cold hands, and a delay in driving to work.

However, simply by parking your car facing East, you can make it easier to scrape the ice off of your windshield. The reason for this is simple. Overnight, you park your car facing East, and then in the morning, the sun rises and melts some if not all of the ice off of the windshield. Even if the sun only melts a little of the ice, it will at least soften the rest of the ice to make it easier to scrape off with a tool.

Loosen frozen car doors with cooking spray

As we detailed in another article, you can use cooking spray as a secret weapon to loosen up frozen car doors. Sometimes, car doors can freeze overnight as the temperature drops, and then ice forms and gets wedged between the door and the door frame of a car. If you preemptively spray cooking spray on the car door and frame, it makes it much easier to open a frozen car door.

Hand sanitizer and other winter tips for your car

In addition to cooking spray and parking your car facing East, here are some other winter tips for your car:

• Rub hand sanitizer on a frozen lock of an older car or if you have a broken key fob.
• Stand up the windshield wipers to keep them from getting frozen stuck to a windshield.
• Use a broom to wipe the snow off of the roof, windshield, and windows of a car.
• If you don’t have heated side mirrors and want to prevent ice buildup, cover the side mirrors with plastic bags and tie the bags with a rubber band.
• Put a bag of kitty litter in the trunk or the rear section of your car. For one, the added weight provides extra traction. Secondly, if your car gets stuck in the snow, you can pour the kitty litter by the tires to enhance traction.

Don’t let the winter blues get you down. Park your car facing East to reduce the ice on the windshield, and utilize any of the other winter car hacks.