To throw them out?

I haven't paired socks in 20 years! Everyone has different coloured or patterned bottoms they all get shoved in their rooms if they want pairs they can find them! I don't think I have worn a matching pair of socks in 20 years.

I have two boys. One wears Nike socks, the other Adidas. If I find odd ones of either, they get put back in their relevant drawer and paired up later. So much easier since we allocated them a brand each!

I haven’t found a solution in all my 64 years. My late mother in law loved nothing more than sitting down and sorting through my sock pile. Now I have a whole laundry basket just full of odd, old, socks, I do some pairing and give up. I threw away a load recently as they must be years old (MIL died 2017). The trouble is we all have our favourite socks, but not enough of them.

Having got your colours sorted try this: i dry on the outdoor line as much as possible. As I peg out I look for similar sock and peg next to each other then when dry they come off and are rolled together straight away

I wash them in laundry bags. Then when sorting out i leave them in my bed, tell them their clothes are ready to be kept and let them fight for their own socks.

i have a bag of odd socks
plenty of us dont mind wearing odd socks

One of my friends once lost it, collected every sock in the house and dyed the whole lot black. Within a fortnight rogue white socks started to appear.

You’re not going to win this one, OP

You cant buy loads of the same socks if daughter is a size 4 and son is size 8.
Especially as son maybe a size 9 soon?
You will have one of them in a sock to big or a sock to small

Buy different designs for each child.
Or the black ones with the different colour heal
Job done

Amazing. This. A million times this.

1. Let the lodger do their own!
2. (I find helpful, and it avoids having to share) Each teen has their own style, eg DS17 has Next white sports socks and plain black socks for school, DS15 has black socks with a bit of colour on the toe and heel, I have small socks and DH has colourful socks.

Are you normally able to identify and pair up your own socks after laundering? If so, I'd do that and leave the others - either all socks or any unpaired socks - out in a specific but kind of out-of-the way location like maybe a tote bag in the laundry area (so they can sit for a while without being in your way) for the other household members to review and take their own.

@marigoldsareblooming how about leaving his unpaired? There's no rule they need to be paired before he gets them.

I'd start with one thorough check under beds etc then chuck out any single socks still not matched. Then make sock pairing a teenager job done in front of the TV once a week.

I definitely wouldn't go communal myself but you do you. it's easy enough to do separate colours each, eg DD plain black, you black with different patterened soles (though these might then want pairing) & DS his Nike ones or black with coloured toes.

Goodness! Was someone rude about my sock post? How odd!

https://tinyurl.com/mrncvhe3

No lost socks

Socks suck. I reckon I've spent a good portion of the last 30 years pairing socks. And DH is the worst of all ( complaining that they aren't exact pairs) so I said do your own damn socks. Which he does sometimes , the rest of the time he just buys pairs from the shops! Infuriating. And if you know what I mean you'll know that Bonds (purposefully I think ) does every shade of green and every shade of blue and grey. I hate them with a passion.

You need to each have a style of sock.

I keep my crazy socks - easy to pair anyway because they stand out.
Older teen boy has his socks - bonds, white - younger teen has his own - next, white - dh has bonds black.
Everyone finds their own in the sock bag when they need them.
The key is not having too many pairs each. Too many pairs and it all gets out of hand but keeping it down to 7 pairs each, means there are less to sort through

We have an odd sock tub, they all go in there till I’ve 10 mins, then I quickly pair them up. In the summer when I’m ahead on the washing basket any odd ones get thrown away !

My grandson (23) wears odd socks deliberately. You buy them, but they are not sold as odd socks, but non-matching. Save your money.

It's a winning strategy!

I always shoved the odd ones in a bag and then made them sort it ever so often.

Are you me? This is exactly how it is in my house 😂 apart from my 3 year olds whose obviously are too small to mix up

I have black socks with coloured toes and heels. Every other sock belongs to DP. This works perfectly re putting them in the right drawer.

You need sock pairers in a different colour or style for each person. Get them all together (eg at dinner), demo how to use the pairers, and state that this is how socks must be put in the laundry basket. Tell them quite firmly that unpaired socks will not be washed. They will be left in the laundry basket/on the floor/whatever your dirty laundry system is. And then follow through!

Sock pairers make sock laundry so much easier.

I’ve done this with both my teens. Multipack socks only for years. They pair them up. Life is too short.