I Just Discovered the Most Ingenious Hack to Shovel Snow
After growing up on the West Coast, experiencing a Chicago winter for the first time in college was a very rude awakening. Not only do I have to deal with bone-chilling wind that ripped right through my multiple layers of sweaters and coats, but several inches or feet of snow also became the norm.
Shoveling snow is arguably the worst part of a snow day, thanks to the considerable amount of time and exertion that you need to clear a path to your door. However, a TikToker is now going viral for revealing a much easier hack for clearing away snow while barely breaking a sweat — and people are saying it cuts their snow shoveling time “in half.”
In a video shared by TikToker @Han_Melt, they demonstrated the clever way their fiancé swapped out a shovel for a much more efficient tool while scraping snow off their driveway. “This is how my fiancé has always shoveled his driveway growing up,” the TikToker wrote alongside the video, which shows their fiancé using a large piece of plywood to scoop freshly-packed snow away from their house. With the use of this snow shoveling hack, the TikToker said the task only took 15 minutes — and viewers’ minds were blown.
“Real definition of work smarter, not harder,” one commenter wrote, while another confirmed that this hack does indeed work. “I tried that twice already,” they wrote. “It cut my time in half compared to a snow shovel.”
The TikToker did caution that their fiancé said that the plywood board works best “as long as you’re consistent,” meaning it might not do the job if you only start shoveling once you already have multiple feet of snow piled up. But it’s true that shoveling snow is always harder if you’re not doing it regularly, regardless. You also might need something a little sturdier like a shovel if the driveway is icy. However, because you’re not lifting the plywood like you would a shovel, you might be able to get away with pushing away more snow than you would with a shovel — and if your piece of plywood is wide enough, you’ll definitely be shoveling a big area at a time.
This snow removal tip isn’t the only one to go viral on TikTok recently, as another video of someone laying a piece of tarp over their outdoor steps and then simply shaking the snow and ice off the material recently started trending. Some people have also tried it on their driveways, as demonstrated by this TikTok from @jonjononair.
So, the next time it snows, consider putting down the shovel and trying one of these low-lift snow removal hacks instead to see if they get the job done.
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