As I was doing laundry yesterday, matching and rolling socks for everyone, I happend to think of something DH had said the other day.
I have an odd sock basket in the laundry room...every sock that comes through and ends up mateless goes in the basket, in hopes that the missing one will show up sooner or later (I won't embarrass myself by revealing how old some of the socks in that basket are. Just call me an unbridled optimist....). Anyway, DH had run out of socks and I was behind on laundry, so I encouraged him to check through the odd sock basket and see if he had any in there. I think he found two pairs of his socks (good enough), but about 8 pairs of socks belonging to the kids.
"You ought to match those up once in a while" he commented as he took his socks upstairs. "I do," I replied, "I just haven't for a bit." (I usually do it when I can't put any more socks in it...it's a small basket that fits on a cabinet shelf).
Now, I was stewing over this (just a little) yesterday, I thought of references to sock matching I'd picked up from the boards and various books. I actually considered designating a basket as the Sock Basket, period, and just putting all socks into it as they come out of the dryer and letting everyone turn, match and roll their own.
If there was a spot in the laundry/sewing room for such a basket, I probably would do it. Anyway, for the moment I decided to just keep doing what I've been doing and consider it a blessing to the family.
But I wondered...am I in the minority? How does the rest of the world handle socks on laundry day? :D
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteLOL! I have the same sock basket in my laundry room, and DH makes similar comments about matching the socks. Recently, I have tried an idea from the book "Living the Simple Life" by Elaine St. James--So far I have only done this with myself but it does work. Buy mesh laundry bags (2 per person)--each person puts their dirty socks in one bag for the whole week--then brings the dirty sock bag to the laundry room on laundry day--wash all the bags of dirty socks. After washing, transfer clean socks back into clean mesh bag--OR if you only use 7 pairs of socks at a time, you can just switch mesh bags after washing--The empty bag (that was for clean socks) is now for dirty socks.
Tying different colored ribbons etc. around the zipper tab would provide a label for identification of bags. She also recommended buying only 1 - 2 types and colors of socks so that they can be mixed and matched.
Somewhere, somehow we received a magazine holder basket in the shape of a snail. For years it has been the "sock snail". I match up socks from the sock snail about every 2 years - and some of the mismatches are about as old as my marriage (25 years).
ReplyDeleteMy husband's college roommates teased him that he went all the way through college without losing a sock. This is no longer true!!
I don't worry about lost socks much.
I do much the same as you. I match the socks as they come out of the dryer, or at least before they go in the sock drawers. And I too have a place for unmatched items...
ReplyDeleteThe difference is that, as there are only the two of us (DH and me), I actually manage to do ALL the laundry once in a while. That means every item except for the clothes on our bodies is clean and put away.
So any unmatched bits at that point I toss. I *know* their mates are gone.
Tip: before I toss them I use them... they make great dust mitts!
I have to match them out of the dryer, and have a place for the one's that need a twin. I do throw them away or they become dust rags if the twin is not found quickly.
ReplyDeleteMy DS loses so many socks, I started refusing to buy him more. He started raiding my sock drawer. So now I buy only really feminine socks.
I have a plastic shoe box on a shelf in the laundry room for unmatched socks. When it fills up, I go thru it and toss out the old ones or the ones that are too small for the kids. Sometimes I make sock dolls from the odd socks.
ReplyDeleteSock basket here too! :D I occasionally (once a year?? :P ) go through it and toss anything that doesn't look remotely familiar anymore.
ReplyDelete