Monday, January 30, 2012

Lonely Single Sock Heaven

I've got a basket of single socks.  Single, unmatched, lost mate, socks.  I go through it periodically, usually after a day of loads of laundry, and match up ones that got separated in the wash, but I still have a very full basket. I've got socks in there that I have not seen in a pair in years.

My husband recently went through it and ruthlessly culled any the kids said were lost causes, never to be seen again socks. I couldn't bear to look.

I'm not sure why, but it seems so wasteful to get rid of the one sock.  Who needs one?  It's not going to be used.  At least in my basket, it's having a nice cozy end of it's life.

But word must have gotten out that our house is lonely single sock heaven, because when I did laundry yesterday I pulled out three unmatched socks that Do Not Belong To Us.  Add those three to the one hanging on the chair and the other 4 in my basket, I have eight socks that do not actually have a foot here that belongs to them.

I don't understand how kids who sleep over without a pillow or a change of clothes, can go home with only one sock......

I will do what I did with the other socks.  I will ask every person who comes into this house if they are missing a sock, and when the answer is the inevitable "no," I will add these lonely socks to my basket.  Who knows, one day I might have a brilliant idea of how to use all these single socks and then it will party time for the socks that thought their usefulness was at an end.

13 comments:

  1. I wonder if any of your single socks match any of our single socks? I hear they travel.

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    1. I've head the same thing! Imagine roaming packs of single socks...lock up your sock drawers!

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  2. Our washing machine/dryer has a monster inside it. And it eats up pairs of socks. Gobbles them right up. He doesn't care whose they are or whether they're new. Actually the ugly thing prefers new socks. But he will only eat one sock from each pair [he's picky like that].

    Maybe you have a sock eating monster in your washing machine/dryer too!

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    1. I've thought that too. If we have under the bed monsters and closet monsters, a washer/dryer monster sounds even more plausible. After all, what else explains the missing socks so well?

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  3. We just wear mismatched socks. One time I lost a bright red argyle sock for a whole year. It turned up in the sleeve of one of my husband's shirts. How does that happen? How many times did he wear that shirt with my sock in it?

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  4. We should have a sock swap! I have plenty of lonely single socks! :)

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  5. Along with all the normal sock woes here in the Masked Mom household, Daughter-Only's boyfriend plays drums on the video game Rock Band with one sock on (the better to work the pedal, allegedly). Not only is it odd to walk by and see one socked foot and one bare, but he will frequently misplace the sock he removes and wander aimlessly around the house for the rest of the afternoon or evening with just one sock on.

    At least now I know where to send all our abandoned socks. The basket at Michelle's house is the sock version of "out to pasture."

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    1. I did ask our almost son how he went home with only one sock, and he said he'd missed it greatly when he walked home, but at the time he hadn't felt like looking for it!

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  6. Research indicates, that when attiring the hands with one sock each, for the purpose of polishing something up brightly, mismatched socks are proven to be more effective. Try it and see if you don't agree with me. And as far as where the second sock goes, when visitors return home? Check all shirt sleeves carefully...

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    1. That's a great tip! I shall put some socks to good use now. Thanks!

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  7. There has got to be SOMETHING you can do with them!

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