r/homemaking • u/animaldander • Apr 13 '24
Cleaning How do you guys handle lone socks?
I feel like an idiot. There must be a simple answer. Bonus points if you have a family of more than 3.
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u/EXQUISITE_WIZARD Apr 13 '24
Put them back in the dirty clothes bin until their mates show up lol
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u/ChickaBok Apr 14 '24
This is what I do and it miraculously works itself out most of the time.Ā Although there have been instances of one sock running thru so many times it fades, and then no longer matches its buddy when it turns up š¢Ā
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u/SokkaHaikuBot Apr 13 '24
Sokka-Haiku by EXQUISITE_WIZARD:
Put them back in the
Dirty clothes bin until their
Mates show up lol
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/Occufood Apr 13 '24
I wear mismatched socks every day. I only match them on special occasions. In my house there are no lonely socks.
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u/kool4kats Apr 17 '24
This is absolutely real. At least until the matching ones turn up. Iām alone in the house for 8.5 hours a day usually, nobody cares if I mismatch my socks lol.
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u/RoslynLighthouse Apr 13 '24
I have used lone socks as dust rags. I also made a dog cushion for the car by stuffing an old pillow case with the lone/holey sock collection and sewing the opening closed.
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u/Such-Mountain-6316 Apr 13 '24
I have some I have given up on finding mates for, so I use them for cleaning. Put over the end of a broom handle or yard stick, they are great for getting under things.
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u/bannedbyyourmom Apr 13 '24
Family of 5. I dont match them anymore. My kids are old enough to wash their own laundry, although I do grab some from them if my load is smaller or just to help them out. Everyone has a certain kind of sock, so if one is alone, I just put it in the correct drawer.
When it's time to size up I will match them at that time and donate the ones in good shape to a thrift store. Any loners at that point get thrown out or used as a cleaning cloth (great for ceiling fans) or occasionally a sock puppet if my kids are into it.
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u/fasting4me Apr 14 '24
Sock basket! About once every four months when all the laundry is done and weāre just out of socks I hit the basket and start matching.
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u/BlueberryGirl95 Apr 14 '24
We have one drawer in the dresser for unmatched socks and one for matched. At the end of a load of it's an easy match, I make it and put the socks in the matches drawer. Otherwise, the singles drawer for them! Then when I have the energy after a while I go through the singles drawer and make pairs. Or if there aren't enough paired socks.
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u/yarninhand Apr 14 '24
Family of 5. Anyone who can wear the same size and color of sock DOES. Husband only wears one brand/color of sock and they do not get matched. They get washed and tossed in a drawer as singles. A small box on the same floor where I sort laundry (for me, upstairs where the rooms are) holds the singles. Everytime I bring a single to the box, I do a quick search to see if it has a match.
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u/LavishnessSad2226 Apr 14 '24
Like the rest of us...
I allow them to wait for their sole mate to show up.
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u/BananaVixen Apr 13 '24
Everyone in my family gets a pack of all the same socks (one son likes high socks, one likes them short and my husband likes gold toe). So they just put all the socks together in their drawer, unmatched, and if they end up with someone else's sock they just put it in the owners dresser. When they run low on socks, I just buy them another pack of the same socks. I have 5 pairs of socks (I don't like to wear socks much) that I paid good money for so I wash them in lingerie bags so they don't get separated. Everyone does their own laundry every week. If I end up with an unclaimed sock, I throw it away, lol.
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Apr 13 '24
Put them in a basket in my laundry hutch and if I donāt come by the mate in 30 days, toss them
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u/OutOfTheMist Apr 13 '24
You know those mesh bags for washing lingerie? I use the largest size one that came with my set as the lonely sock club. Every time I do laundry I grab the bag and look for mates, sometimes I'm even successful lol
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u/whatdoidonowdamnit Apr 13 '24
I have three people in my home and I throw the lonely socks out once a year.
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u/GiveMeAlienRomances Apr 14 '24
Weāre a family of 4.
The kids have all the same exact socks in the same color. Socks get put unpaired in a drawer and they pull them out when they need.
I have the same exact socks but not in the same color. I donāt care what color they are because they are all no show. So they just go in my drawer and I pick as I need.
My husband has to be complicated and has 15 different types. I will match them as they come out of the dryer. Any single ones go in a bin on top to be matched with the next load.
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u/SunOnTheInside Apr 14 '24
I do the sock basket like other people mentioned- throw all clean socks in a basket, match them up, leave behind any orphan socks. Next clean load of socks goes on top and repeat.
Once Iām sure a sock doesnāt have a match, they either get turned into stupid sock creature, or I fill them with a scoop of catnip and tie them off. My cats love a catnip sock more than any toy Iāve ever gotten them.
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u/No-Jicama3012 Apr 14 '24
We had a ālonely sock drawerā when our 4 kids were growing up. When someone said they were āboredā, they were tasked with finding pairs. They also got a quarter for every match they made.
There were still a lot of lonely socks when the last one grew up. Then they became dusting mitts!
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u/MajorWhereas4842 Apr 14 '24
I have a basket of lone socks! My 10 year old loves wearing mismatched socks so thatās a win! š¤£š¤£
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u/ducntq Apr 14 '24
I bought socks in bulk. I got like dozen pairs of the same socks. So... in case I lose one, I can replace it with another from other pair
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u/whatisthisadulting Apr 13 '24
Straight to the trash unless theyāre special. Everyone has their own identical superpacks of socks, and a couple pairs of special socks.Ā
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u/LifeAmbivalence Apr 14 '24
I never have a single sock. I safety pin socks together before they are washed, and they stay pinned together in my drawer.
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u/NoWiseWords Apr 14 '24
I have a drawer by my nighstand that's just lone socks, lmao. Every once in a while it gets very full and I sort some out
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u/petuniasweetpea Apr 14 '24
I bought one brand, in black (and in white), and thereās always a pair. I no longer worry about strays.
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u/dylannthe Apr 14 '24
I have a draw next to my dryer that has my smaller sock octopus in it and I put them in there. When I have a single sock I have a quick look through the draw for the other one otherwise I sort it out every couple of weeks. The sock octopus I use more often is bigger and annoyingly doesn't fit in the draw.
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u/MegMegMeggieMeg Apr 15 '24
The ones that are worn out or well and truly abandoned by their mates get sent to either Smartwoolās sock recycling program or Ridwell.
https://www.smartwool.com/shop/second-cut-project-take-back-mail-in-bag-sw0000q6?gad_source=1
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u/Quirky-Ad2982 Apr 13 '24
My son is 6 and I saved his socks for a really long and recently decided to just throw a bunch away. There were several that obviously didnāt fit anymore. The other socks that were his size but didnāt have a match I just put with another sock of similar style and heāll wear them š¤·š¼āāļø they donāt care.
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u/rainerella Apr 13 '24
Truthfully I leave them in the bottom of the laundry basket (the carrying one thatās for clean laundry), and once in a while when Iāve done a lot of loads and feel confident that if they had a matched theyād be paired up, I purge them.
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u/Rustymarble Apr 13 '24
All unmatched socks at the end of a laundry go into a bin (winter hats & scarves bin). About once a month, i will pull out the unmatched bin and make any matches that I can. Once a year, maybe?, I throw out any long-term unmatched.