Everyone in Michigan Should Put a Quarter in Their Freezer Now

You learn something new every day, especially when you live in a new region of the country. The odd little life hacks different places have can make you stop and wonder how someone even thought of it in the first place.

The credit for this simple hack goes back to one of our sister stations in Minnesota.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm fairly cashless these days. I generally just keep a quarter in my center console for trips to Aldi. Rarely do I keep change around for any actual spending purposes. But if I find another quarter lying around, I may have to keep this hack in mind to put that loose change to good use.

This hack is particularly useful for people in Michigan, and really around the country, who travel a lot or who have a basement or garage freezer, though anyone could find some use for it.

Effectively, if you have a freezer that can be affected by a power outage without your knowledge or ability to remedy the situation, a quarter can help determine if the food that you've kept in the freezer is still fresh enough to eat.

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The trick is to fill a cup with water and place it in the freezer. Once the water in the cup is frozen, place a quarter on top of the water and leave it all in the freezer. If ever your freezer loses power for an extended period of time, you can check the freshness of your stored food by checking the quarter. If the quarter is still at the top of the cup or near the middle, your food may still be fine to eat.

However, if the quarter has fallen to the bottom of the cup, your food has defrosted at some point and needs to be disposed of.