AIBU to ask how you deal with socks?

[PrincessConsuelaBananahamm0ck]

Are there any households who don't have a pile of odd socks? Even after I've done all the washing, everything is clean and folded and ready to put away, I'm always left with a load of mystery odd socks. Help me out of this misery please. Tell me your sock life hacks. I'm tempted to just throw all of them away.

I detest socks. DSs just wear odd ones. They are all black but not matching

I've given up pairing them coming out of the tumble dryer. The only person that stores them in pairs in a drawer is DH. So I don't know how many we have.

However - DS1 has 2 packets of black socks with coloured heels that he wears in and out of school.
DS2 only wears all black socks (same 3 packs bought at the same time)
DD has either black tights (which I don't wear) or luminous green socks.
DS3 has grey school socks or dinosaur home socks.
So the other socks are either mine or DH's and I know what mine look like.

Pants I struggle more with because DH wears Small and the 3 boys are between 10 & 15 so there's not much in it size wise and I can't remember who has the blue boxers with the red top and who had the red ones with the blue top so I'll get them to sort those.

The lost ones are down the backs of radiators and folded up in the corners of duvet covers and pillowcases.

I have a box of odd socks. All the "just put the socks in the machine in pairs" is pointless I think - the socks aren't vanishing in the machine, they're just under beds and so on. I'm not scrabbling around in other people's bedrooms for dusty socks!

I try to buy in bulk so have maybe ten pairs identical. Makes it very easy to find a pair!

No problems with socks here.

Not a massive sock problem here although DH will throw one if its got a hole in but put its partner in wash! I also have loads of plastic tubs and loads of lids, they just don't match up for some reason!

I don't bother trying to pair them anymore, all socks go in a bag for life in the wardrobe and we have to try and find a pair every day.

My teenagers' socks all get labelled; odd ones get put back in their drawers and usually pair up within a week or two. My socks usually stay paired, and if I get some that are similar to my husband's then I tack something on by way of a quick label for mine too.

My husband won't pair socks properly - just grabs two that are close enough - so has a permanent large pile of unpaired socks. I will fold pairs together and the rest just go into one drawer.

I live on my own and only have my stuff to wash, but have been known to get odd/rogue socks. I usually given them a severe talking to ;-)

I don't have a pile of odd socks because I pair them up before putting them in the wash and then pair up again when it's done. It only takes an extra minute and I can't stand odd socks or people (my DSC) wearing odd socks as irrational as it is so I always pair them and if there's ever one missing then the lone sock gets left in the wash basket until next time when the missing sock usually reappears.

Our unmatched go back into the airing cupboard, where they generally meet their mates after the next wash.

They’re all in the duvet covers.

I report them to MNHQ when I spot them.

Dh size 11 me size 5 to 6.

I wear his socks. We only buy asda super cheap black socks. Super comfy and they fit me and a they fit him!

So that's easy peasy.

Dc more tricky.

When my girls were at home we had the Sock Box, which lived on the floor if the airing cupboard . I threw all the socks in there after washing and everyone just sorted themselves out a pair as needed or, in DD2's case, wore odd ones.

Pairing socks is my least favourite of all household tasks so I passed that particular chore onto my 10 year old. Every couple of months I just chuck all the odd ones.

I bought eleventy-million sock-pairing thingies. Now everybody has their own colour, and is supposed to pair their own socks before putting them in the laundry basket. Any socks that come out of the basket or washing machine unpaired go straight back into the laundry basket.

The dc have each had one occasion when they ran out of socks. None of them has made that mistake again.

Keep bag with odd ones. End up buying lots of socks

Sock-pairing thingies.

Alternatively...

Paired socks get folded up straight off the drying rack, odd socks go in a bag. Once a week it's the 7 yr old's job to match the socks in the bag or throw away the worn-out ones. If we're all caught up on the washing (about once a month or so) and there's DEFINITELY no pairs then everything in the odd sock bag gets chucked in the textile recycling bin

To deal with this problem, I only buy myself identical blacks socks-so they should all be interchangeable.
But the older ones fade more than the new ones!
So I still have odd socks. There is no solution. Trying to solve this leads to madness.