With the onset of winter and freezing, unnaturally cold weather that makes us wonder why we live in places where the air hurts our faces, we also encounter things from time to time that include frozen windshields in the morning and sticky icy doors on our cars. It’s easy to take care of this, but sometimes you might be tempted to scrape with something out of the ordinary, and that could cost you your car’s paint job and cause scratches on your windshield, or worse. Keep reading to find out the best ways to de-ice in a flash without causing a scratch!

First of all, invest in a good plastic scraper. These are inexpensive and can live unobtrusively in your car forever. Use this on your windshield in conjunction with your defroster and you’ll be great to go.

Second, you can make a solution for defrosting your windshield out of one part rubbing alcohol, two parts water, and a spray bottle. Mix this up, and if you go outside in the morning and see that your windshield is frosted over, spray a little of this on. Run your wipers after a minute and see the frost literally melt away!

Third, if your doors and locks are frozen, pour a little cold water on them. Hot will just freeze again and ruin your life even more, but cold water will help to unfreeze your lock and let you into your car easily.

Winter doesn’t have to be a life ruiner! You got this.