My entire life, I never had a garage, and in a state where winter seems to last 10 out of 12 months, that meant I had years of scraping off snow and ice from my car. When I moved into my current home, I was thrilled to finally have a garage.

I had dreams of walking into the garage after 8 inches of snow and not seeing any frost on the windows and not worrying if the bitter cold had drained the battery to the point that it wouldn’t start. For the first few years, I lived in a state of bliss.

Having a garage was everything I dreamed of, but then it started to get complicated. It was a one-car garage, and there was barely enough room for my car, let alone anything else that we may have wanted to store in there.

Unlike the attic or the basement, there are certain things that just belong in the garage, such as the lawn mower, tools, garden and yard implements, etc. Why? Because no one wants to lug a lawn mower up or down stairs once a week, sometimes twice a week, during the spring.

Slowly but surely, the garage began to become cluttered. A wheel barrel for my garden needs, a stepladder for when I need to get on the roof and take care of those pesky gutters, a few crates of oil for when I do the oil change, garden hoses and nozzles.

When I put the car in the garage, I began having a hard time getting the car door open, and eventually, the car was barely fitting into it all. The final straw was the garden tiller I bought, at which point my car moved back to the driveway.

Fast forward about three years, and once again I am scrapping frost off the windows while my lawn mower and tools sit all toasty in the garage. So far, the cold hasn’t gotten to the point that the battery had become drained, but that day will come. Every year, I promise myself that I will reclaim my garage for its true purpose, but when I go into it I have no idea where to put anything.

My friends have suggested building a tool shed in the garage, and I am sure that eventually I will get around to it, but for now, I’ll keep my scraper handy. One day the garage will be mine again, but that’s going to have to wait until spring.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/pauldineen/2096545904/

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1. Step 1

   Make your shovel more user-friendly by adding floor wax to it before starting on your ice-packed driveway. The slickness will help the shovel glide through snow and ice and prevent snow from adhering to the shovel.

2. Step 2

   Apply rock salt to your driveway for an inexpensive way to help melt away the ice.

3. Step 3

   Use calcium chloride pellets to melt ice at lower temperatures than rock salt.

4. Step 4

   Choose potassium chloride when it’s not as frigid outdoors and temperatures are above 15 degrees F. It is less harmful than some of its fellow deicers.

5. Step 5

   Remove ice using another kind of deicing product known as magnesium chloride. It removes ice at extremely low temperatures and is better for the environment because it releases less chloride than other salt deicers. Additionally, it is less harmful to plants, concrete and other surfaces than some of the other options.

6. Step 6

   Melt away ice using a hand-held propane torch. These multifunctional units are also good for killing weeds and insects, so it will prove useful all year round.

7. Step 7

   Eliminate driveway ice in the luxury of your own home

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