We need to talk about socks

[JesusIsAnyNameFree]

Where do they actually go?!
I put in 5 pairs with the rest of the washing. I know I did. I looked at what I was doing. I was even thinking about the Bermuda triangle of socks when I was doing it so I know I made sure they went in with their friend.
Yet here I am, folding laundry and am missing the friend of 3 socks. 3! I'm the only one who has touched this laundry and I feel like I'm going crazy!

Please, someone, tell me the truth of the sock. I must know the truth. Is it aliens?

Oh thats the worst cross pot I've managed yet! I wasn't calling you smug, SciFiScream

I suspect that there are large sock-bergs accumulating in the sewers...

Nah, I watched as the machine regurgitated MILES of chewed up, minced sock fragments ( bound together with cat hair, my hair and knicker elastic )

I have no explanation for teaspoons, though

@Thelnebriati

This is why I use net laundry bags

Me too!

@Thelnebriati

Oh thats the worst cross pot I've managed yet! I wasn't calling you smug, SciFiScream

I just laughed out loud at that.

@Weedsnseeds1
That sounds about as horrible as clearing the shower drain. I sometimes watch DH empty the drain and gag. Me, not him. I don't know how he does it.

When they were young the DC each got 10 pairs of "school" socks different to each other's for this exact reason!!!

A Mumsnetter suggested using Immac in the shower drain, I havent tried it yet.

@cardibach

I just buy black socks. All black. I may have an odd number, but I don’t have odd socks.

Until they start to fade and then you have to match to the degree of fade!

They transform into random electrical cables that don’t appear to have a purpose.

@Maxellious

It’s almost as though someone is coming in here, stealing the damn things and selling them on...

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

Selling them on to the people who now wear odd socks after years of suffering like we do now. Meaning the odd sock wearers are part of the problem due to supporting the odd sock market

Net laundry bags are the way forward. I did have to call a repairer out once and he managed to extract a pair of my Bridget Jones pants from the sump drain, very embarrassing

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

It’s almost as though someone is coming in here, stealing the damn things and selling them on...

I just bought laundry bags from Home Bargains this weekend £1 for a large, medium and small!

I don't know how people can vote YABU! Are you some of the people who have never gone through this? I feel like the washing machine is screwing with my mind for it's own sadistic pleasure.

I’m sure my toddler DD must eat hers or something! We must have countless tiny toddler socks somewhere in the house, but I can never find any!
As for finding matching ones, I’ve no chance. I’m pretty sure DD doesn’t realise socks are supposed to match, given that hers never have.

@SciFiScream

I've never lost a sock in the machine in my life. I use sock bags/laundry bags. Whole family is trained to use them too.

Mine aren’t lost in the machine. They sometimes get left behind in the laundry bin. Other times they fall out of the basket on the way to the machine. Yet others, they fall through the slats of the airing cupboard shelf and dive behind the hot water cylinder. Occasionally, they inveigle themselves into pockets or hoods. Mostly they turn up eventually, hence my small crate of singletons, waiting in hope. But on a few occasions, they vanish entirely. I blame magpies for stealing them off the washing line.

My odd sock bag is older than my youngest dc... who is 18
(I did eventually throw out all the children's tv character odd socks though, but I'm fairly certain there are still size 2 converse and duffs from their skateboarding days that I'm not quite ready to give up on.)

As soon as l dump out my stash of odd socks l find two or three whose partners have just gone. I really want to run after them to match them up again. My dsis tells me she has never lost one sock..no laundry bag. I am so glad others lose them as this house is unreal for odd socks. Maybe all the bags should be emptied out in a big heap and we start matching like mad!!

@SciFiScream

I've never lost a sock in the machine in my life. I use sock bags/laundry bags. Whole family is trained to use them too.

This! I genuinely don't understand how they go missing, I count them in and count them on the line. When DH was in charge (as SAHP) he never struggled with lost socks either.

I don't think the machine eats ours, the issue is from basket to drawer, then put the house to dirty laundry basket again! Only ever the DC that have lost them!!!

@junebirthdaygirl

As soon as l dump out my stash of odd socks l find two or three whose partners have just gone. I really want to run after them to match them up again. My dsis tells me she has never lost one sock..no laundry bag. I am so glad others lose them as this house is unreal for odd socks. Maybe all the bags should be emptied out in a big heap and we start matching like mad!!

It would be billions of socks if this thread is anything to go by! One woman had 83 odd ones!

OP I am too in a world of mystery about my missing socks. I live alone, in a small house, only ever go out to work or shop, no removing my socks Willy nilly outdoors, no visitors to borrow or steal socks, no pets to eat socks, defo not in duvets etc, WHERE DO THEY GO.