Skip The Salt - You Can De-Ice Your Driveway With A More Affordable Alternative

Ice in your driveway might be dangerous, but salt isn't necessarily the best way of getting rid of it. Not only is driveway salt single use, forcing you to buy it year after year, but using it for de-icing can have serious environmental impacts: Salt can contaminate water, harm plants, damage concrete, corrode metal, and harm pets. Instead, you can use a pitchfork to get rid of large chunks of ice and clear your driveway for walking and driving.

Better than trying different types of salts to melt snow and ice or attempting to make homemade ice melt, a pitchfork will save you both time and money. Pitchforks, due to their multiple sharp prongs, are great for getting underneath thick ice and breaking it up into smaller pieces. This makes breaking ice much easier on your back, as you're lifting and breaking less of it at once — using a classic snow shovel, on the other hand, you'll put your body through more stress to accomplish less. This trick can also work on the steps outside your home, although you might want to try a more high-tech alternative to shoveling to make things even easier.

As demonstrated by @the_daily_diy on TikTok, begin at an edge where you can easily slide the pitchfork's prongs under the ice, then use the leverage of the long handle to lift and break the ice up. Once you have removed enough chunks, you can use your snow shovel to scoop them up and move them out of the way. You should work your way across your driveway like this until you've removed all of the ice, making sure that the concrete is safe to walk on with plenty of traction.

There are some considerations you should keep in mind when doing this, though — for example, take care not to scratch your driveway or break the pitchfork. If you're too aggressive with the pitchfork, it could damage your driveway. To avoid this, make sure you slide it gently under the ice and try not to break too much at a time. To prevent your pitchfork from breaking, make sure you buy a quality tool. This should cost about the same as a bag of salt and will still save you money in the long run, since you won't have to buy more salt every winter. If you're worried about wasting money on a tool you'll only use a few times a year, you could also use your pitchfork for home composting to help bring your garden to life.