The Case of the Missing Socks

Where are those missing socks????

I really don't have words of wisdom for not losing socks. I do have a few theories.

 

1. My husband washes his clothes. A lot. He never seems to misplace his socks. He is a great husband and some sort of wizard. Obviously. 

2. I blame the kids. They must steal my socks or shove them under couches or take them to a friend's house. They do the same thing with their own.

3. Maybe the dogs sneak them somewhere. I don't know. Homemade chew toys that they end up actually consuming? They just like to mess with me??

 

 What really happens is someone takes their socks off in the car and one falls out into the garage and stays there for weeks until I clean the garage out and I find a random sock that I throw in the wash with the next load. Or one ends up behind the laundry basket. And sometimes it really is our youngest who likes to hide things, specifically in the garbage can.

 

I have heard of people safety pinning socks together before they go into the wash. I don't care about socks THAT much. There are very few things I will go to that much effort for, and socks certainly don't fall into that category. Anyway, this is how I keep track of socks for my family.

 

Honestly, I don't have too much of an issue with losing socks. One here or there may go missing, but it's not a perpetual thing. I keep a cute little canvas bag hanging in our laundry room.

I love this bag!! My brother brought it back for me when he spent a year in Japan when I was a freshman in college. The front side is so funny. It says: "Do You Buy It? Elephant U.S. $2.00-!"
What on earth?
Well I love the bag, but it has a $2.00 elephant on it, so I just flip it around to hang and chuckle to myself when I take it down.

When I pull laundry out of the dryer and there is a sock with no mate, I toss it into this bag. Usually, once a week, at least every two weeks, I get completely caught up in laundry. That means everything is washed, dried and put away. It lasts about 11 seconds before someone gets yogurt all over their shirt or a diaper incident happens, but that's when I pull down my sock bag.

Most of the time, the mates are all in there together, so I fold/roll them up and put them where they belong. I bet they start singing "..so happy togeeetherr". Maybe not. Sometimes there are socks somewhere else (the garage floor..) and there are a few left in the bag without a mate. I hang the bag back up until next time I am caught up again on laundry. Typically, if the match for those same socks has not been found, I get rid of the single sock. I have NO REGRETS, PEOPLE! I use them to dust or sometimes put them in the craft area for sock puppets, but I don't keep single socks for long. Sorry, suckas!

I have come across a match for a sock months later that I knew I already threw out. Guess what? BuhBye.

Remember, we don't really lose socks that much, so throwing a few stragglers out feels just fine. We have some very nice socks that I would certainly investigate further to retrieve before I just started trashing those. I would let them hang out in the elephant bag for a while longer. Most of the nice socks are my husbands, though, and he's a wizard that knows how to keep his socks together. 

Y'all know by now I like to give you links to other options, so here ya go:

It Socks to Be Lonely – FREE Laundry Room Art

Hide Loose Items

A Mom’s Solution to ‘The Missing Sock’ Dilemma

Creative Laundry Room Storage + Free Labels

Have a great day!