JFF - How Many Orphan Socks Do YOU Have?

It's called the Hose Zone, the invisible part of the dryer that consumes socks and spits out misfits.

A bag full. (Like one of those small shopping bags) stashed under the bed, full of miss-mates. Pulled out whenever I'm putting away laundry. Sometimes I make a match, sometimes singles finally get tossed because they don't fit my kids anymore :)

Do you have daughters? That is one of the current fads. To purposefully wear mismatched socks.

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By the way... I never throw out socks. I keep a plastic grocery bag in the laundry room (hanging on a hook) and put old/holey socks in it. Then when I go to dust/clean, I just reach for an old sock. Even with holes, they are clean and make excellent cleaning cloths. You stick your hand inside and voila! No dust on your hands. And just toss it when you are done. Then, you don't have to wash dust cloths so no cleaning sprays make it into the washer/dryer.

mine are at the point where I don't even bother matching my socks anymore.. I just have a basket on the shelf in my closet where my socks used to get folded and put away... now when I fold laundry I just throw them in the basket and grab 2 that are relatively similar to wear

A great big stack...

In my case, I think the washer and dryer eat 'em!

(Music from Jaws....)

Your predicament seems to defy the laws of physics. When you figure this out, let us all know.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

I do not hang on to the Orphan socks, if after the next two full cycles of laundry I do not find the match they get knotted for dog toys, cut up for rags, turned into puppets etc.

ETA: Baby socks are my fav things to cut up for winter, I use the toes to cover up my toes when I put on tights and boots in the winter. My toes tend to ruin tights if worn all day, I have found that if I put on a baby/toddler sock over my toes no runs!

I have a zippered lingerie bag of rotating amounts of socks. Since the boys and my husband buy a couple bags where all the socks are the same I just tell them to throw out whatever single sock has a hole and throw the other in the hamper and then grab a stray out of the bag or put it in for the next time I need a stray when I do the wash. I also throw in the singles until I find the mate. If it doesn't fit I throw it out.
If you have a front loader make sure you're looking in the rubber door seal. They get stuck in there all the time. I now look after every load to make sure nothing has gotten stuck in there. I wash my daughter's smaller socks in lingerie bags so they don't get lost. This has cut down drastically on the amount of stray socks I have.

i finally forced myself to do a purge a few months ago. and sure enough, within the next couple of weeks, about half a dozen orphans i'd been hunting for YEARS came wandering home!
gah!!!!
i've probably collected another 6 just in the last couple of months.
:/ khairete
S.

Lots. If it is the boys socks I just pair up mismatched socks and make them wear them.

Maybe you have mine. Seriously, I also don't know how they get here. How can my kids have socks if I have so many. I have already purged and given up finding some but I keep getting more. Where do they go? And how come my kids still have socks to wear. I have not bought new ones recently.

If I had not purged back on November I would probably have at least 100.

Giggle. I have an amazing number of orphaned socks, partly because my children have the unfortunate tendency to drop their socks wherever they take them off , and partly because wearing mismatched socks is all the rage with the under 12 set around here, so single socks just shack up with their neighbors. :-)

I have many ! I have started wearing unmatched socks. I have gotten tired of trying to find matched socks - if I even can :) My boys have packages of the same socks so it doesn't matter to them - they all match.

O, way too many, yet I can't seem to get rid of the orphans because I just *KNOW* I will eventually find the mate! LOL! No matter that the socks no longer fit anyone in my house! hehe!

And really, where the heck are the other socks!?

none cause socks don't have parents :-)

Now divorcees and widow socks, yep I've got a ton of um.
Cause I keep forgetting to do what my grandfather taught me to do . pin um together before they go into the laundry.

That's why I buy all of the same type of sock. I may have a single for a while, but eventually, I'll just go down a pair when another one gets lost. :)

Your timing on this is too funny. I literally spent 2 hours the other day trying to tame the orphan socks-laid out just the kids took over half of a queen bed. I'm sure it's not worth the time to sort them, but I feel awful throwing away. I never knew we even owned that many!

Actually just one. Normally very anal wurh zippered laundry bags & getting DD & hubby to put socks inside... But somehow I cant seem to find baby's other blue sock. Its annoying me!! I put socks in bag to wash & it still disappeared:( I havent given up hope yet though! Plus they were new socks he had not work yet....
P

None.

I buy the kids two kinds of socks. Black socks and white socks. That's it.

I go through their socks when I buy new shoes and toss all the ones that no longer fit or have holes. And then buy more of the same kind.