Everyone who has feet has to deal with socks. Socks become pesky when it comes time to do laundry (especially for kids!)! There’s always one missing or one that turns up with a hole in it. With multiple children of the same gender that wear similar shoe sizes, socks become peskier than average. To solve your sock issues, here are some tips:

• Buy many pairs of the same style & color of sock, that way when one turns up missing or has a hole in it, you can always find a match for it.
• Color code socks for each family member. Thankfully, I’m the only female in my house… so I buy athletic socks for myself that have pink on them. That makes it pretty easy! For the boys, one gets socks with blue words, one with a blue stripe and one with a gray stripe. This makes it easier to sort socks. Also, when there is a pair of dirty socks on the bathroom floor and everyone refuses to touch them, claiming they are not theirs – it makes it easier to determine the owner! {not that this ever happens. EVER.}
  • Side note: We do the same thing for underwear – one has boxers, one briefs and one boxer-briefs. If we had four boys, we’d be in trouble!
• Keep each person’s dirty laundry in a separate bin. With socks (and clothes) of similar sizes, this helps each child not to argue about whether those are your pants/socks/underwear or mine. Each child’s clothing gets washed separately. When the load comes out, all of the socks should match. It also helps the child learn responsibility for keeping up with their own laundry.
• Teach kids to sort/match socks. A little work never hurt!
• Throw away all socks with holes in them. This cuts down on the number of socks that need to be sorted and matched.
• For baby socks, use a safety pin to pin the socks together before you wash them. They are so tiny that they tend to disappear in the wash. Pinning them keeps the matches together.
• Simplify your sock wardrobe. I’ve got brown, navy, black and white socks. I find no need for other color variations and simplifying reduces chaos in the sock drawer.
• For all socks that are matchless after laundry day, throw them into a community bin. When another sock comes up matchless, search the bin for the mate. After a month or so, get rid of the matchless socks. Make sock puppets or toss them into the circular file. Please do not donate single socks to your local charity (unless they have specifically said they have a use for them)! One man’s trash is not necessarily another man’s treasure.
• Oh… and one more. Please don’t wear socks with sandals! Seriously?!?

Do you have any other SOCK tips?