Black Hole of Socks?!?!?!

There's a space/time vortex in the dryer.
The socks use this portal to travel back and forth to the Land of Lost Socks.
Actually there is a vast sock army which is trying to take over the world.
Ever see one lonely sock by the side of the road?
Yep - sock intelligence collecting information.
The dark socks are ninjas with special forces skills.
I've actually resorted to washing socks separately from the rest of the laundry.
It helps to a degree, but the odd sock still wanders off every now and then.

Lingerie bags (washable mesh zippered bags). I use them to corral my little ones' socks because they are impossible to keep track of otherwise, and recently I've begun putting my own socks in them too. They are available in the laundry section of any store (Target, Walmart, etc). I just keep a few in rotation, using one for white/pastel socks and another for darker ones to toss in with the appropriate loads on laundry day. The key is to try and pop dirty socks into the lingerie bag immediately upon taking them off the feet.

We got a very clever book called Lost Sock! 200 Clever Ways To Use Your Single Socks by Cynthia L. Copeland with Anya Lewis. It sits out and most folks that come over end up picking it up so you know this topic has a universal sensitivity. Here is a link of the book: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Sock-Clever-Single-Socks/dp/16...

A few weeks ago we used a whole bunch of single socks to make sock puppets with a youth group we work with. This was preceded by a fun game of sock tag which was like flag football without the ball, and a sock fight similar to a snowball fight without snow and with some of the many, many single socks I have gathered over the years in hopes of reconnecting it with their mate. I obviously have given up on that dream.

The book recommends three companies that make items that keep your socks paired in the laundry:

www.cyclopssocksclip.com
www.sock-locks.com
www.sockpro.com

I didn't check the links and have never seen the products but my husband laughs about when his father got "sock handcuffs" because he got so annoyed at The Sock Monster.

Good luck and know you are not alone.

My teenager loses all his socks all the time. I will do the laundry on the weekends and their is one half pair of socks for him. I bough 25 pair of socks for Christmas- he doesn't have any socks. I have no idea where they go everyone else has socks

In theory, if I was a housewife with more domestic ability, we would safety pin together little girl socks before plunking them in the wash. Our grownup socks would be gathered into a mesh bag for washing and drying.

Since I don't do that, I buy all my socks black. My husband's socks are all tall, smartwool for work. The children get packs of socks from target that all sort of match. That way, when one goes missing, they can still be worn with a similar sock.

Unfortunately that's right up there with finding a cure for the common cold! The "one sock disappearing until you throw out its mate" is an International Mystery!! I swear that if anyone can solve this riddle they deserve the Nobel Peace Prize!! Needless to say I totally relate to your dilemma and have been fruitlessly trying to find a remedy. The only thing that "sort of" works is buying several pairs of IDENTICAL SOCKS .... that way when 1 goes missing you can still get at least 1 pair and a spare! Good luck!! :)

How funny, as I clicked on this question there is a segment on Sesame Street about a lost sock :)

Socks are sneaky! It doesn't take much for one to get swept under the bed or tangled up with something else. Plus, when you drop one while doing laundry it makes no sound, so it's easy to miss the strays. My suggestion would be to ball up your socks when you take them off to keep the pairs together, then just make sure you separate them when you do the laundry. For baby socks, I use a mesh laundry bag to keep them together in the wash, or else they end up getting sucked into the lint/hair trap.

LOL
I have a black hole of scoks too. Mostly my kids socks i have found that its a lot to do with them taking off socks and not putting directly into hamper. But i actually had my washing machine eat a sock - repair man had to come out! I don't have any good advice I HATE SOCKS!

I'm the only female so have different patterened and fun socks, but I have refused to match them for 12 years now so I don't care.

For my husband I only buy one brand/style so his socks are obvious. There might be some odd ones in the end, but they are easy to match up.

I do the same thing for my boys when I can (people buy them socks for gifts, but I try to buy all their socks at once the same way).

Lately, since I despise sock-matching so much, I have been keeping a cloth shopping bag over a door handle in our room. If I don't see an obvious match (including socks I KNOW I have matches to) they go in the bag. Since they might be in different loads, it is easier for me to match them up during a movie once a week or something. I still find strays now and then in weird place--behind furniture, under the washer, in my car, etc.

I found a lot in my son's "sock nest" at the bottom of his bed (in the sheets). HJe wears them to bed but NEVER gets up with socks on! LOL

Hi Mommylucatero
It is common practice in my house to "roll" the socks together when you take them off. But .. there always seems to be at least one pair that loses it's mate during the whole washing experience :)

I had a pile of dress socks that I've been holding onto for close to a year, hoping the mission sock would resurface .. I just threw them all away.

Seriously . .where DO the socks go!!

good luck!

We only have one hamper for the whole family so unless the socks are on the floor somewhere - they should be in there. However, I found that our socks always get stuck in something else. I have found them stuck in underwear, in a pair of jeans, stuck in sheets and sometimes we miss them and put the clothes/sheets away and don't find the missing sock until we put on a pair of jeans and the sock falls out. Maybe take a count of the socks before the wash then count after to make sure you've got them all.

This is a constant problem. I have 2 step-sons who do their own laundry at their mom's house... and don't match their socks. Inevitably they leave my house with matching socks and return with mismatched socks. Every now and then I get so fed up with my pile of single socks that I ask that all socks be collected at their mom's and I go through them... it's really amazing how many pairs of socks these two boys have!!! It's not just the boys though... my husband has socks that go missing too. Oh well. I just keep a pile of singles and everytime I have socks to fold I grab them and work them in.

It's a 'law of the universe' that the washer and/or dryer requires a steady diet of socks to keep functioning ;) lol.

I have to laugh because my husband and I just had this conversation last week! He informed me that he regularly has socks drop out of his pants legs at random times (I used this as reinforcement for my argument in favor of dryer sheets....)

But we also have two children who have "stashes" of clothing. I'm not sure why they feel the need to hoard dirty clothes, but there you go. Socks are usually the number one item in the pile.

Yep...all the time..With just a bout every load a poor sock is missing its partner...sigh....

Check your dryer vent leading out the wall. I hated my last dryer with a passion. Socks went missing it took forever to dry. The hubby bought a brush you attach to a drill to clean out that vent when I finally got a new dryer. We were shocked at what came out of there. Not only did we find all the missing socks, but pounds of lint. We were very lucky there wasn't a fire. My hubby climbed the roof to check the vent on top of the house and it was stuffed with socks and lint...the rain turned it all into a weird mash. New dryer now and no lost socks. (We also make a point of checking the vent every few months and with the new dryer no more issues).

house trolls. sometimes if you leave them milk and honey they'll give them back. but not very often.
their latest depredation here is my i-pod.
:( khairete
S.

I just tossed 17 lone socks that I had been trying to find the mates for!

A repairman once told me that the socks really do disappear in the wash. That's because they are so small and thin (especially kid socks) that they get sucked through the crack at the bottom of the agitator and end up wrapped around the mechanism. He said whenever he opens up a machine, the owner shrieks at all the "missing" socks that are discovered.

When I was single, I used to pin them together with a safety pin, but with a family of 4 that's not as feasible. I finally did what another poster did - bought all matching socks for my kids so it didn't matter if one or more went missing.

I found out that a lot of socks were getting stuck in the rubber seal around the front of my front loader washer. I now check it after every single load, even if it had no socks, just to make sure nothing got sucked in there. I wash the baby socks in a mesh bag. Toys R Us/Babies R Us sells my favorite, it's huge and zips up, I'm very close to getting a pile of them and everyone's socks except for bigger ones get put in them to keep them out of that rubber seal. I find socks everywhere in the house. I think the cats(4 of them) may grab them now and again and hide them. I find them tucked into shoes, under furniture, in the car (especially for the littlest one). I try to buy packages of the same socks to help with missing mates. I always have the kids, throw away a sock if it has a hole but put the good one in the wash anyway. Eventually it gets a mate from another getting a hole. Problem is they don't always tell me they threw away a holey sock so I wonder where the mate went. I have a rotating pile of single socks that eventually find a mate. Socks are my most hated part of laundry ;)

Yes and her name is Pudden she is a choclate lab and takes them off to never never land. I buy socks all the time and they get lost by themselves and pudden multiplies neverland for socks.

Buy all matching socks. Then they will all match. If one goes missing, it won't matter.

I keep a basket of lone socks. Everytime I do laundry and get another lone sock, I see if the mate is in the basket. Probably 1/2 the time it is. Most of the time they get matched back up eventually.

I've heard of moms giving each member of the family a mesh bag just for their socks (& sometimes undies). All dirties go in there. When laundry time comes, zip it shut, throw it in the wash. When dry, just give the bag back to the appropriate family member. Makes wash day quicker - no separating socks & underwear or matching up socks. And hopefully the socks stay together.