I recently went to a baby shower where the game was to take a box of tiny baby socks and sort and match them up as fast as you can.
This activity caused me much angst and anxiety.
This is not fun, this is my reality. I thought.
(And besides that I was jealous that there were actual mates for each sock to match up.)

I know the old “what happens to the missing socks?” dilemma often used by stand up comedians is not a new one.

But - I declared war with Vivian’s sock drawer this past rainy Sunday afternoon and it was truly pathetic.

I dumped out her drawer on the bed and spread in front of me was a vast array of cute little girl socks.
Alll of the darling socks came in just about every color.
But it was truly just one sock in every color.

Seriously. Where did they go? I’m not finding them in sleeves or pantcuffs or sheets that they were washed with - what the heck?

I was at the Container Store and saw a little product - sock clips - to attach to the pair go keep them together in the wash. Genius! I thought. Perhaps they would be the answer to my problem.

I told my uber-organized friend Sara about that new invention over coffee.
“Sure,” she said, “but what a hassle to sit there and clip each pair together before they go in to the wash - do you honestly think you’re going to do that?”
Uh, no.
“Better yet why not just throw all of the socks into a lingerie bag then they will all stay together.”
(genius!)
“OR why not just buy a few jumbo bags of the same white socks - then you have no problem with mismatches.”
(more genius!)

So I’ll keep some of the single socks to wipe glasses (great Cribsheeter tip from Tobi on this past post)
and clean out the drawer and start anew.

I figure if I can achieve just one organized drawer, maybe then I will have a little bit of compartmentalized order in an otherwise chaotic household with two under four.

I know I’m not alone in the missing my mates dilemma - what do you do to keep your socks together?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 9:07 am and is filed under Family Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.