Ten-minute hack: Keep the snow off your windshield (just in time for spring!)

The most irritating thing about the morning weekday ritual in these northern lattitudes is scraping the show off my windshield. I'm already cold and cranky; having to do some manual labor to get the car ready to go is just icing on an anger-cake.

While I was watching TV with the family one night, a commercial came on for a windshield frost guard. I had to laugh a bit, as I said to myself "That's basically just a sheet you put over your windshield."

I decided to test that theory.

Preparation

Jersey-knit sheet. Red. Queen-size. It was on the top of the "Sheets we don't really want to put on the bed anymore" pile.

Ten-minute hack

I opened the car door and laid the sheet's short end across the top of the door frame, then shut the door.

Then, I stretched the sheet across, and did the same on the other side.

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It turns out my timing couldn't have been better, because we got a couple of inches that night.

March 25... GROUNDHOG YOU ARE ON NOTICE.

However, I just peeled the sheet back and...

... all set!

I shook out the sheet, threw it in my trunk, dusted off the other windows and the flat surfaces, and drove away.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I'd call it a successful experiment.

Pros

1. It was free (amortized against the cost of a sheet destined for the rag-pile).
2. It worked great.
3. If the sheet ever gets too grimy, it's machine-washable.

Cons

I still don't think I'd buy a dedicated windshield cover for this job, but here are some issues I can predict happening.

1. Jersey knit wicks water. This could be an issue if you get a rain-then-freeze weather pattern; you may end up with sheet stuck to your windshield. A waterproof material would be preferable.
2. Since the ends of the sheet are extending into the car, they could get a little grimy and carry that grime into your car (or wick water in), which could be a problem depending on your tolerance for that sort of thing. The ones that are sold for this purpose have some stiffness to them and bungee nylon that wrap around the rear-view mirrors; if I felt like doing more than a ten-minute hack, I could probably fabricate something equivalent with bent-out coat hangers and some rope.
3. Even after shaking the solid snow out of the sheet, the wicking action had pulled a lot of water in, and I ended up with a soggy sheet in my trunk. My trunk doesn't care about wet stuff, but if yours does, you'll want a plastic bucket to keep the sheet in.

With luck, we shouldn't have any more snow this year (HAH!). But if we do, I'm ready.

Ten-minute Hack: Controlling the Wire Monster

It should be no big surprise that I have more than one loose wire running around the dashboard of my car. I actually have three: two USB micro cables to charge my cellphone and earpiece, and a stereo headphone cable to plug the phone into the AUX jack of my car (memo to self: next car... USB audio in or bust). These wires are not only unsightly, they're a snagging hazard with the cup-holders underneath them and a dog frequently in the car. It's neither fun nor safe to have your cellphone yanked into your lap by its charging cable while you're going at 45 MPH because your dog wanted to put a friendly paw on your hip to say "Hello."

I've been putting up with this rat-nest for awhile, but I finally decided this weekend to stop putting and start hacking. I put together a simple hack to tame the wire-beast on my dashboard. Excluding planning and part procurement, it took no more than ten minutes. Here's how it went down.

Preparation

As a first-pass solution, I grabbed some velcro ties (tip from Momma Tomczak: never run out of velcro ties) and gathered the wires into one coil. That was already an 80% solution, but I didn't like the idea of supporting the weight of the wires solely by their sockets (the audio wire in particular; I'm on my third one of those because they keep breaking from too much pressure at the point of contact into the radio).

Taking a look under my console, I learned that I was in luck: screws! Thank you, 2000 Honda Civic!

Taking a quick trip down to Lowe's, I browsed the hardware aisle for a few minutes and found my new favorite area: the hobby parts drawers (which are basically "Replacement parts for your Erector set"). I fished around and settled upon these little beauties: ⅜" Natural Nylon Clamps. Picked them up for a little over a buck and headed home.

Ten-Minute Hack

There wasn't quite enough room to get the electric drill in between the cup-holders, gearshift, and lower console, so I settled for a manual screwdriver (actually, I, uh, manually used the screwdriver drill bit from my DeWalt drill... Don't tell my high-school mentors). I slipped the nylon clamps in between the screws and the console, and screwed them down until they felt solid. It should hold (which comes from the same engineering lexicon as the software test theory of "It Probably Works," but hey, ten minutes spent). Rather than thread the wires through the clamps, I threaded the velcro ties through the clamps to make it easy to swap out or rearrange the wires.

Final Thoughts

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. Minimally-invasive, and it's really cleaned up the problem. There's a bit more slack in the cable leading to the AUX jack than I'd like, but the way to fix that is to find a right-angle headphone jack plug so I'm not extending an inch out of the radio unnecessarily. I'm confident that this solution should clean up my snagging issues.

One minor issue remaining is that when nothing is plugged into the charger or stereo cables, they don't stay in the cupboard easily and have a tendency to dangle. I may get a stick-on wire holder to affix to the left lower side of the console to stow those when they aren't in use, but that's a minor issue compared to having wires snake around my cup-holders continuously.

Yay, ten-minute hacks!