9 Things You’ll Regret Leaving In Your Car This Winter

There’s nothing worse than hopping into your car on a cold day only to find out those cans of soda you picked up yesterday exploded all over your trunk. Not a pretty sight at all, and it’s going to take hours to try and clean up the now sticky mess. However, this could have been easily avoided if the soda wasn’t in the car, right? Just like the soda, there are a ton of other things you’ll regret leaving in your car this winter that you are going to want to take note of.

Your electronic batteries can take quite a toll in the extreme cold temperatures. Apple actually suggests that having your electronics outside below 32 degrees Fahrenheit isn’t good for them, and the performance of your electronics will suffer. Although some phones can withstand the cold (even up to negative 4 degrees), your battery can still drain faster than normal in colder temperature—sometimes even going completely dead with no warning. Yes, your electronics will work fine when bringing them back to warmer temperatures, but it’s still not great for their overall performance and battery life.

We all know that cracked eggs are a big no-no when buying a carton, and it can also happen when eggs are left out in frozen temperatures. However, if you do end up leaving eggs out and they are perfectly intact, yet frozen, they are still salvageable. After bringing those eggs to room temperature, it’s recommended to only hard-cook eggs that have been sitting in a frozen climate. That’s because colder temperatures cause the yolk to freeze, which means it won’t blend as well compared to a properly refrigerated runny egg.

Baby formula can actually separate in freezing temperatures, which could ultimately make it inedible. If this happens, you may want to just get rid of that baby formula to be safe.

Soda isn’t the only beverage to explode in freezing temperatures. Other popular carbonated beverages, like beer or seltzer water, also don’t stand a chance. The freezing temperature for soda is actually 30 degrees, and for beer that has 5 percent alcohol the freezing point is 27 degrees. If it’s lower the temperature, there is risk of explosion in your vehicle.

Not only can canned foods expand and explode like a carbonated beverage, it can actually break the seal and spoil the foods inside the can. If your canned food did freeze in the car, it’s recommended to thaw it in the refrigerator. If the food looks or smells bad when you open it, throw it out. Especially if it seems rusted! And if it the food does seem a bit funky, avoid tasting it at all costs!

The last thing your string, brass, or woodwind instruments need is to be sitting in extremely cold temperatures. Freezing temperatures can completely tear up your instruments, like the wood, the strings, or even the valves. If you did leave it out overnight, make sure to gradually warm it up. Going from zero to 60 when warming your instrument can cause damage immediately, so be careful when trying to warm it back up.

Some drugs, like insulin, can actually lose their effectiveness if they freeze. Make sure to remove any drugs from the pharmacy from your car or risk wasting expensive medicine thanks to the cold.

In general, leaving your fluffy friend in the car is probably never a good idea. And it’s especially true in colder temperatures. By locking the car (even if you’re quickly running in somewhere) your increasing the chance of your pet freezing to death. Don’t plan on turning your car off when running in somewhere? Well, that’s actually illegal.

What’s the point of scraping off ice if your ice scraper is already completely frozen? It may seem ludicrous to have to bring in this car tool every night, but you’ll be thankful later when trying to scrape the ice off your car the next morning. Actually, did you know you could avoid it altogether with this easy car window-defrosting trick? Also, you may need to bring in your ice scrapers, but you should actually leave this winter car emergency kit in the car.