How do you feel about socks?

Our original missing sock basket

   I hate socks.  I hate wearing socks. I hate washing socks.  I especially hate folding socks!  My mother can testify to this, as she has volunteered to fold my families socks.  But what I really loath, is missing socks. Those one or two socks left over after a load of laundry that have no mate.  In my house, those socks get lost in the shuffle and I end up rewashing clean socks or losing them completely.  After a while, I got really tired of just hanging on to those socks with no way of knowing if I'd ever find their mates.

   That frustration, prompted me to find a solution.  The missing socks basket.  I went to my local dollar store, purchased a small plastic basket that was big enough to hold a couple dozen socks.  After a large washing day, when I had a lot of socks left, I put all those left over socks into that basket.  I put the basket on the top shelf of my linen closet, where I didn't have to look at it.  When I found single socks, I just tossed them into the basket. Once a month or so I would take down the basket and see if I found any matches among the singles.

   This solution solved several problem at once.  Problem #1, what to do with those unmatched socks.  Toss them into a basket, no need to think or worry about them.  Problem #2, will I ever find the matches to these socks?  YES!  If there is still a mate around the house somewhere, using this basket will find it.  And after the sock has been in the basket for several months, if you can't find its mate then you probably never will.

    Once we moved in with my mom, our system had to changed.  Now, since my mom folds our socks she uses just a plastic grocery bag and keeps them in her closet to deal with.  Below is our current sock situation.  We don't wear socks in the summer, and thus I don't care about folding socks during the summer.  That plastic bag has our mismatched socks from the spring, it's time to get folding for the fall.

    My mom recently told me a story about a mom friend of hers who also hates folding socks.  It was nice to know I wasn't the only mom who hated socks.  I hope this momma hack can serve some of you moms well.