Tuesday Tip: Socks

Today's helpful tip is the sock-pairing method that I have found to work best for us. Meaning, the sock pairs actually stay together in the drawer, or wherever their home is as clean socks. And, when anyone grabs a pair, they actually get a matched pair in one swipe without rummaging through trying to find a sock's mate.

Over the course of years, I have seen several methods of folding and storing matched pairs of socks. They are pictured below:

A. The safety-pin method 

B. The fold-in-half method (This is what I grew up with- they don't stay folded, or together, especially in my husbands sock drawer!)

C. Just a pile, and whatever two you grab is the pair for the day

D. The cuff fold-down method

E. The turn the sock half-way inside out over the other one method

F. Turn the cuff down and stick the toes up inside the cuff method

For myself, with the fold-in-half method, my socks would semi-stay matched, but I couldn't just blindly stick my hand in the drawer and pull out a pair. It took some effort to make sure I got a matched pair from my drawer. For Jason, he just blindly grabs two socks and puts them on. Even though I would fold the pairs together, he rarely got a matched pair. When Little Pumpkin was born, I tried the safety-pin method, even for washing her socks. The safety-pins started rusting, and I was afraid one sock would get stuck under the washing machine dasher and rip a whole in the socks. (I later bought some lingerie, or delicates, laundry bags for washing baby socks.)

You may be wondering why I don't use any of the fold-down methods. I have no good reason, except that my Mom always said it would stretch the socks out. So I've never done it.

Sometime last spring, I finally got smart with Pumpkin's socks and just started sticking one sock inside of the other.

With baby socks, it's as simple as grabbing the toe of the sock with your thumb and first finger, and sliding it into it's match.

And, Voila! You have a matched pair that is easy to blindly grab out of a drawer, bin, pile, etc.

It took me a while, though, to realize that I could use this simple method for our adult socks, too. So now, whenever I do laundry and match socks, I just slide one sock down into it's match.

For adult socks, especially knee-length, I just grab the toe end in my fist, and stick it into the matching sock.

You could argue that this method, too, will stretch out the sock, but it's literally only for 2 seconds. And hey, you stick your feet into the sock the same way.

With my free hand, I typically grab the set of toe ends so the inside sock doesn't come back out, and as I pull my hand out, the outside sock magically envelopes the inside sock for it's entire length!

And again, Voila! All my socks have their buddy, and it can't get lost in the rummaging around for a pair of socks!

I especially like this method for when I use a basket, instead of a drawer, for socks. With the "just fold in half" method I grew up with, there's no way the socks would stay paired in a basket. With my new "sock-inside" method, it would be very hard for a pair to become separated. Although it is possible- Little Pumpkin has figured out that all socks have another sock inside of it, and digging out her socks is a fun activity!

What successful method have you found for keeping your sock pairs together? Or, are you like Jason, and it doesn't matter if your socks do not match?