We all have lost socks and most of us keep them, waiting for the mates to show up! Here’s a great way to store lost socks until the missing ones return!
Storing Lost Socks – Easy Organizing Idea
I have a pile of lost socks that I keep in the laundry room. As we were getting things ready so we could show the house to sell, I just didn’t know what to do with them. I use my lost sock pile almost every day so I didn’t want it to get buried in all the moving mess.
Then it hit me– I would put them in the new jar I just bought at the thrift store. (Yes, I know I’m moving but I LOVED the jar! :-) I was going to use it for something else but I think it’s my new lost sock jar! What’s even better about it is that I can see all the socks in there so I’m not digging around trying to find what I need. I can just reach in and grab the match and finish the laundry.
-Tawra
Hopefully socks are hermaphodytes and will breeed in the jar to make mates!
You are right. I can’t decide though if they like to breed or kill each other off because so many end up missing. :)
I love this idea. You’re probably busy painting your walls neutral colors and paring things down etc. while your house is on the market, but this is a great whimsical touch that I’d definitely keep on display! It will probably be appreciated by all the potential buyers who come through your house.
Love the idea! Although my daughter is grown, my hubbys and my socks still disappear! Thanks for the wonderful idea. I have a extra shelve in my laundry room and that will work perfect! Have a blessed day!
Just to tease you, how can you have a pile of lost socks? I think what you meant to say was you have a pile of socks that have lost their mates!!
Yes, that’s what I meant to say but with a CFS brain nothing comes out right! :-)
LOVE the jar idea…We have front load machines on pedestals and keep our ‘orphan socks’ in the drawer under the dryer, which we call the “ORPHAN SOCK DRAWER”….We also have less orphans since I only by 1 type/brand/color for hubby, and 1 type/brand/color for daughter…I buy colored dress socks for suits and store them in the suit pockets (cleaned first LOL)
Great idea! The top of my dryer now looks less cluttered :o)
The Lost Sock Dilemma sounds like what I use to have occur-frequently! I was reading(somewhere,sometime) and the article said that matched socks don’t matter. What were people going to do? go around lifting your pants leg to make sure your socks match???? If you are wearing shorts and tennis shoes, maybe then you would want to match–Or Not! Who is to say what you have to wear–as long as you own them, they(socks) are yours to do with as you please…
Pink and Green socks? Blue and Red socks? Why not? Go for it!! Is it going to affect global warming or world hunger? If not -be happy- Do what you want!! I personally go to the laundromat and ask for their baskets of abandoned(left) socks…Saves me money in the winter and my feet stay as warm in a green and red sock as in two white one. And, they make good scrubbing cloths! One to a hand and you have an automatic duster–( and the dust doesnt fly like with a feather duster)Just a thought! I do enjoy the information and opinions..well, just the whole website.
I call my unmatched socks the “singles club.” Sometimes the colorful ones become sock puppets. The ones with holes in them can become knee pads for children. They are great as white board erasers and keep more of the dust in them, rather than spreading it around on the ground.
One time our front loader washing machine was having a problem. When we emptied out the drain, there was my son’s sock! I think it was trying to escape! I’m not really sure how it made to the drain! Is it a different world in the washer and dryer? Do they have different rules of physics?
I bought and old flip top mailbox that I painted to compliment my laundry room. it hangs on the wall and all unmatched socks go there. If their mate does not show up in a month, they go in the craft area ot I write “rag” om them and they become dust rags.
Cute idea Sharon. I love those old mailboxes but the only idea I could come up with is to decorate it and put it in the yard to store small garden tools in.
I made a new container for my “single socks”. I used some upholstery samples and made a cube with a zipper down the middle of one side. The socks can go in there to be an ottoman in my front room. Whenever we are matching up the socks, take a look in the “singles” bag that isn’t hidden in another room. We can still make sock puppets with those who have apparently been permanently abandoned by their mates. Then they will be loved again by my children and grandchildren.
i pin my socks together when i take them off. this saves the frustrating time of looking for the right sock to go with the other one. when my kids were at home, we would hang the single on a little line above the washer. then the sock owner would know where to find the missing single. i had a friend with 4 teen boys at home. she just bought all the same kind of socks, in the same color and left them in a basket on top of the dryer. each boy got the socks as needed.
Fabulous idea, especially for someone like me. My washer and dryer are in my kitchen which I love since my disability keeps me from going to the basement, the normal place they usually are in my part of the country. I already have my laundry soap in a great big one exactly like yours sitting on the dryer so I don’t take up cupboard space. I have it’s smaller sister that I wasn’t using so now, thanks to you it’s out with the socks in it. Thank you for the fab idea.
The latest style here is unmatched socks. Most of the teen-aged girls wear them. I believe they told me they bought them that way. Go figure!
I know Doris. I saw them selling 2 pairs of them for almost $30 the other day on TV. They were cute though.
When we were kids, we never had much money, so odd socks that weren’t being worn that day, were used as mitts for the us when we played in the snow. I always have a small cardboard box under my laundry tubs for orphan socks. I make a new pair when I can match up an odd sock with another that has the basic foot colour the same. Length and colour of sock cuffs are irrelevant in this matching process.
I keep the family single socks in a laundry basket, pulling them half way through the holes in the basket. That way if a matching sock shows up, you can pull the single sock out of the basket and pair it with its mate.
I put all the socks in lingerie bags before throwing them in the washer. No widows/orphans!
This obviously will not work for some people, but what I do is when I find a style of sock I like I buy a bunch of pairs of them.
Then the whole concept of “single” socks becomes moot. I have a sack full of socks all the same. I take out two and put them on my feet. If one is getting worn it goes to Sock Heaven, but until I’m down to the last one of its kind there’s no stress of matching and pairing.
Yes Erik. This is what I do too. You can get way more mileage out of your socks doing this. This is especially good to do for kids.
This is a great idea. I have this same jar, I got it at Walmart to put my homemade dry laundry detergent in. Then I didn’t want to make it anymore so it’s just been sitting next to the machine empty for a while. Now I can solve 2 problems with one thing! What I had been doing was to clothes pin them to a hanger, but tbh it looks awful. I was just thinking i could make one of those cute “looking for a mate” signs, but realism tells me I probably won’t find the time with my 17 month old running and climbing everywhere!