(not my socks. photo found on flickr)Or we could call it The Case of the Missing Socks. I don't know why it is exactly. We each have 2 feet, we wear 2 socks, the said 2 socks get put in the laundry, the laundry gets washed, the laundry gets dried, and then somehow when the laundry gets folded, there are all these lonely socks without their beloved partners. Unmatched. Alone. And the problem begins.
At least in our house. Because, after almost 12 yrs of marriage, of adapting and compromising and adjusting to differences, Zac and I still fundamentally disagree with the right course of action to take with these socks. Indeed.
Zac is of the opinion that the unmatched sock should be put away in the rightful owner's sock drawer and that the wayward match will then someday make it's way to the same fate and then, while scrounging through the sock drawer someday, the owner will have a miraculous moment of "ah-ha! These 2 socks match!" and will happily put them on and the cycle will begin again.
I, on the other hand, grew up with an ominous pile of "unmatched socks" that we would periodically sort and hope that the matches have made their way there as well and then they are happily reunited and then returned to the sock drawer. I also hold a firm (although perhaps misguided) belief that the loner sock is most probably hiding out in the next load of laundry and so will very soon be washed and dried and thrown in the clean clothes pile. So if I leave the unmatched socks in a designated laundry basket that I use to unload the clean clothes from the dryer, then eventually, all our sock problems will be resolved.
So, in some of our more irritable moments, I will sometimes be annoyed with the unmatched socks I find in the sock drawers as I scramble to get children dressed and out the door. And Zac will be annoyed with the basket of "unmatchables" that I leave in the laundry room.
So, help us out here.
What do you do with the unmatched socks in your house???
Or do you solve this problem by being one of those organized folks who use things like clips to keep the pairs together in the wash, or put each persons' socks in their own designated color-coded mesh bag, so there is none of this matching business to fuss with?? I have heard of such things.
Tell me about the wayward footwear in your household, if you would please. Thanks, I appreciate it. :)
5 comments:
I have the bag of mismatched in the laundry room that I go through every once in a while to see if there are any matches.
I've tried the mesh bag thing. The problem still remains that both socks need to make it into the bag to begin with. Socks are getting easier for me now as I & T wear the same size and O & D wear the same size. The older ones wear large and the younger ones wear medium, so I just split the socks between their baskets.
The sock problem I have in my house is the fact that my kids just love to take them off and shove them under the couch, under the bed, under the table or under the bench. We lose a lot of socks that way. I just put the socks I find in the wash and they are quite often without a partner. That's why I love summer, sandals.
I remember the basket of mismatched socks! We got something like 5 cents for each matching pair we found.
I currently work under the method of putting mismatched socks in the drawer, which I agree is rather infuriating some mornings. How do I have so many socks but not one single matching pair?!?! Then I give in and buy new packs of socks with the intention to throw away old random stuff, only to somehow lose all the new ones! Oh socks, why do you taunt me so?
Sigh... The problem with putting them in the drawers is that some of them are lost for good, so the present sock will remain in the drawer, taking up valuable drawer space, forever. My mom did the box of mismatched socks in the laundry room bit. It worked well enough. My method? Safety pin the socks together when I'm feeling organized and on top of life (or if I NEED to feel organized and on top of life...) Better yet, buy socks that all look alike. I don't have to fold the socks into pairs and I don't have to worry about losing one, because there are about 15 more that look just like it!
I have a pile on my dresser as we speak. I side with Zac. I always hope some will come home.
I use the lost sock basket method paired (ha ha, no pun intended) with the "sorry, but you only get to have white socks" method because invariably when I buy a pair of cute socks one immediately gets lost. Admittedly, that's a rule I happen to break a lot, and to be honest even buying bulk quantities of all-the-same whites doesn't fully solve the problem because socks just love to get themselves lost. Adventurous little buggers.
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