Six fifteen AM. Seven degrees outside. Late for work. Ice on the windshield thick enough to skate on. My ice scraper had snapped in half the week before and I had not replaced it because “it probably will not freeze again this season.” It froze again this season.

I stood there in the dark, holding a broken scraper, considering whether it was socially acceptable to pour hot coffee on the windshield. It is not. Hot liquid on cold glass = cracked windshield. Do not do that.

Here is what I did instead, and what I now prep the night before every freezing forecast.

The Three-Ingredient De-Icer Spray

Spray bottle. Fill it two-thirds with rubbing alcohol (isopropyl, the 70% kind). Fill the remaining third with water. Add a few drops of dish soap — literally two or three drops, not a squirt.

Rubbing alcohol has a freezing point of -128 degrees Fahrenheit. Mixed with water it still stays liquid well below zero. Spray it on an icy windshield and the ice melts on contact. No scraping. No waiting for the defroster. Thirty seconds and your wipers push the slush right off.

The Night-Before Trick

Even better: spray a 3:1 vinegar and water mixture on the windshield the night before. Vinegar lowers the freezing point of water so frost cannot form in the first place. It smells like a salad for about thirty seconds and then dissipates. Your windshield is clear at 6 AM with zero effort.

I keep a spray bottle of the alcohol de-icer in my trunk and another by the front door. The vinegar spray lives in the garage. Total cost: maybe three dollars for both bottles.

What Not to Do

Hot water — cracked glass. Credit card as scraper — scratched glass. Sitting in the car waiting for the defroster — twenty minutes of your life you will never get back. Pouring windshield washer fluid on the ice — it freezes into a slushy mess and makes everything worse.

The alcohol spray has saved me on at least six freezing mornings this winter. My neighbor saw me spray my windshield and walk away and now she has her own bottle. We do not speak much but we nod knowingly when we see each other holding spray bottles at 6 AM.