If you're like us, and have your morning routine timed to a fine art, you probably don't have extra minutes to defrost the windscreen.

By the time you've boiled the kettle, wedged the door to stop it from locking, run in and out like a jack-in-the-box, you've lost valuable minutes AND your makeup is running down your face. Well, apparently, we've been de-icing our windscreens all wrong, and the best way to tackle morning frost is a "prevention rather than cure" approach. Scraping with credit cards and pouring boiling water are actually damaging to the vehicle, and saltwater is a much safer tool. Effort.  The suggestion from the experts is to make a saltwater mix the night before, dunking a towel in and laying it out on the windscreen overnight. The science bit? The salt water freezes overnight at a lower temperature than normal water, so it will melt away quicker. But be careful where you place the towel as the salt is corrosive and will damage the metal on your car. A less effective but viable alternative is to mix two parts alcohol and one part water and spray it on the windscreen the night before. Although that just sounds like a grievous mis-use of alcohol to us.