Are socks driving you bonkers? I mean everything related to socks, washing them, then figuring out how to match them up with their mate, if it wasn’t eaten by the washer, and then to their owner.
My fellow NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) members and I recently had a discussion about how best to manage socks for our clients. One member actually had a client who was so overwhelmed with all of the socks from her large family that she left an entire basket of socks on her organizer’s front porch to be sorted. Everyone wanted to chime in on this topic because it is a problem for so many. So you are not alone!
First of all, I would buy each family member a zippered mesh bag and their own laundry basket. Each member would be responsible for putting their own dirty socks, turned right side out if they want them to get clean, into the zippered mesh bag. Each person should be able to place full laundry basket at the top of stairs, outside of bedroom door in the hall or all the way down to laundry area, when they are low on clothes and need things to be washed. Whether you wash each family member’s clothes separately or combined, they now have their own socks contained in a bag. No more socks getting gobbled up by the washer or being mismatched with someone else’s socks.
From this point on you could just throw the bag of clean socks on top of the folded laundry and let the individual owner do the rest or you can take care of the matching since it will be so much easier now.
Also, another good way to keep socks easily identifiable is to buy each family member a different brand so that they all look different. Another strategy is to buy all of the kids the same kind and mark the oldest child with a tally using a fabric pen then mark the second child with two tally marks and so on. As the oldest outgrows the socks pass it on to the next child and add a tally mark.
How do you manage all of the socks in your family? I would love to hear about other creative ways you handle the sock madness in your family.
Maria White is a professional organizer with ENUFF WITH THE STUFF in the Ashburn, Virginia area. To contact Maria you can email her at maria@enuffwiththestuff.com
