Winter is a time for holidays spent with family, outdoor activities, and seasonal adventures. However, snow also likes to stick to everything it touches, making daily tasks much more complicated and impossible to do.
Luckily, there are many ways to keep snow from sticking to your outdoor items, allowing you to spend more time playing in the fluffy white flakes rather than fighting with them.
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Ways to Keep Snow From Sticking on Items You Need Every Day
If you are having trouble accessing all of the essential items in your daily life during the winter due to troublesome snow, here are a few tips and tricks that can help. While these ideas may not be the only options, they are the most effective and used by many people every winter season.
1. Keep Snow From Sticking to Your Shovel
It is very frustrating having snow and ice stick to your shovel as you try to clear your driveway or make a path to your porch. However, this situation can be frustrating as it doubles the workload and makes the shovel heavy and uncomfortable.
Solution: Coat your shovel with non-stick cooking spray or oil, or you can use a silicone spray. The spray will work with the snow, whether the shovel is metal or plastic, just like food. The cooking spray will create a lubricant coating, making the snow build-up slide right off. This solution will also work on your snow blower blades.
If you are in the market for a new shovel head over to our guide Choosing The Best Shovel For You
2. Keep Snow From Sticking to Your Car
Having a car in the winter without having a garage to store it in can make life a little more complicated during the colder months. Some of the biggest problems you face are snow and ice sticking to the doors and windows, making them hard to open, and sticking to your windshield and mirrors, making it hard to see.
Solution: You never want to try to force open a frozen door or window because it can damage the seal. Try using non-stick spray on the rubber seals, applying it before the snow starts to fall or before nighttime when the temperatures begin to dip down low.
As for the mirrors and windshield, your best bet is to cover them beforehand. Place plastic bags over the mirrors and a towel or blanket on top of the windshield.
3. Keep Snow From Sticking to Your Driveway
Anyone who has ever struggled with being stuck in your driveway because you can’t get enough traction to move anywhere probably already knows just how important it is to treat their driveway before the snow even thinks about touching the ground.
Solution: When the weather forecasts warn that snow and cold weather are on the way, spray a de-icer onto the driveway before the snow lands. De-icer is a specialized formula that will melt the snow and ice, allowing you to get your traction and get you on your way, so you are not late to work and save you from going out and constantly shoveling the night before.
4. Keep Snow From Sticking to Your Roof
In heavy snowfall, your roof can collect a substantial amount of snow, which can bear a lot of weight on your home and pose a potential hazard to the house’s integrity. Many people don’t think about preparing their roofs for snow build-up, but you may want to consider it.
Solution: Before the snow stacks up, install heating cables, running them throughout sections of your roof, along the edges, and inside the gutters. The heating cables will melt the snow as it lands on your roof, allowing it to run off into the gutters safely.
5. Keep Snow From Sticking to Your Porch
If you do not have an enclosed porch, snow can easily blow up and over the railings and create a dangerous and annoying build-up of snow and ice, making it difficult to get in and out of your home.
As the wind is unpredictable, you will find yourself treating the porch area after the snow is already sticking, and you can do it in a few different ways.
Solution: Sprinkle rock salt onto your porch and steps to melt the build-up snow or ice. Try to clear away the area as it melts. Alternatively, you can also use a pot of boiling water if you have thick piles of snow or rock-hard ice patches. Pour the boiling water on the patch and quickly clear the frozen debris.
6. Keep Snow From Sticking to Your Satellite Dish
Most satellite dishes are on top of a roof or the side of your home. Manufacturers suggest a place away from falling snow and rain, though this is not always practical in actual-world circumstances. Also, given the dish’s location, it is dangerous and time-consuming to push or brush snow off them during the winter constantly. That is why you should do something about these electronics before the first snowfall of the year.
Solution: The best way to keep snow from sticking to your satellite dish is by covering it up with a trash bag. Many people swear by using cooking sprays or other lubricants to help the joints of the dish move freely, which may be helpful; check with the specific satellite manufacturer to ensure it is a safe option and won’t destroy your dish.
7. Keep Snow From Sticking to Your Snow Plow Blade
If you own a snowplow, you expect it to push snow out of the way with ease. Unfortunately, sometimes moving the snow becomes difficult, especially when the snow begins to melt and becomes sticky, slushy, and builds upon your plow blade.
Solution: The best way to keep snow from sticking to a snowplow blade is by spraying it down with a lot of non-stick cooking spray, silicone spray, petroleum jelly, or a furniture wax spray, which allows the snow to slide right off the blade and to the sides of the plow.
Summing Things Up
Wintertime is wonderful for cozying up to the fireplace, drinking hot chocolate, watching movies or sledding, making snowmen, and having snowball fights. However, it would help if you never had to miss out on the winter fun, removing stuck ice from any of your outdoor items, and with these tips, you never will.
