matching DH's socks...help!

lamplighter ↓

Tue, Sep 25 2007, 9:56 pm

what do u? its impossible, they're all black but a little differnet and Im finding it impossible. For now he does it, bc I cant.
what do u do?
(any new socks we buy will all be the same so that it doesnt matter but for now what should we do?)

greentiger

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 4:33 am

Get a pack of those tiny saftey pins and pin them together before they go in the laundry. They also have special sock holders for this, but IMO saftey pins should work fine. If he is too lazy (which I'm sure he isn't if he's the one doing the pairing) to pin them after taking them off, then you can just have him bunch them up together and just pin them before you put them in the machine.

Ima'la ↓

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 4:51 am

That's what I used to do...but now I follow the following formula.

Step 1: Dispose of all of DH's socks (or save them in a bag somewhere as backup)
2: Buy new socks - all identical
3: Don't even bother to pair them - they're all the same - toss 'em all in a drawer and let him just take 2 in the morning!

mimivan ↓

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 4:54 am

greentiger wrote:

Someone suggested this to me but
1) dont' the pins rust

2) don't they create holes in the socks

3) don't some of the pins get lost in the washer and cause problems?

↑ mimivan ↓

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 4:55 am

Ima'la wrote:

It's been 5 years of marriage going crazy with dh's socks...(yes we have had arguments over this)
I think I am due for a sock amnesty!! Throw them out...buy new
ALL IDENTICAL Thumbs Up

MrsLeo

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 5:07 am

I use those plastic circles/rings that you put the socks thru to keep them together. My husband puts them onto his socks before he puts them into the laundry. Sometimes wen we're away and he doesnt have any I just end up pairing them but most of the other ones are in the rings so its not a big deal to figure out which go together wen its just 1 or 2 pairs.
Before I got the plasic things I tried using the safety pins but IMO:
1. They are a lot harder to put on and take off
2. They made holes in the socks

greenfire

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 10:24 am

okay here's a thought ... either buy the socks with designs so you can SEE the difference ... or buy them all the SAME so it don't matter ... one last thought you can just pull any 2 and wear them anyway Nervous

↑ lamplighter ↓

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 1:34 pm

ok so in my first post, I wrote that when we buy new ones they will all be identical.
I cannot afford and nor am I willing to throw out a "wardrobe of socks" for matching convienaince.
am I wrong?
should I throw them out? (honestly my Dh would flip out)
I spoke to Dh about it and suggested pinning or those sock lock things and he said he honestly doenst think it'll happen, he takes off the socks when he' exhausted..... but he did say I should leave it to him and he dosent mind pairing one each morning (thats what he did as a bochur).

at some point we will restock,
any other ideas..
y'all only have 1 kind of socks?
or use saftey pins (ur dh actually pins it each night?)

shayna82

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 1:45 pm

uch its just another annoying thing thats part of the daily chores, I try to do it with a smile... although its tedious, for the most part I do enjoy doing laundry.

Very Happy

Sue DaNym

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 1:49 pm

la456 wrote:

I used to have that prob. now I just buy him all identical socks.

Clarissa

Wed, Sep 26 2007, 2:30 pm

shayna82 wrote:

uch its just another annoying thing thats part of the daily chores, I try to do it with a smile... although its tedious, for the most part I do enjoy doing laundry.

Very Happy

I agree. For some reason, sorting socks is actually something that doesn't bother me. I don't mind looking through his socks or my kids' socks and trying to discern the subtle differences. Doesn't make me sound like a rocket scientist, but there you have it.

Although I wash the clothes, my husband does the laundry folding which means he does most of the sock-sorting, but I'm in charge of working out the unmatched sock bag once in a while. So that means extensive sock sorting, and I actually enjoy the mindlessness of it. There are several jobs like that that I not only don't mind, but I kind of find relaxing.

↑ Ima'la

Thu, Sep 27 2007, 2:04 pm

ok, so if it's just that you feel bad throwing out socks, you could give them to a gemach or save them for back-up.... But I would recommend just waiting until they wear out - shouldn't take more than a few years! Sounds like your DH doesn't mind pairing them, so consider yourself lucky on that count and just leave them for him!

↑ mimivan

Thu, Sep 27 2007, 6:33 pm

greenfire wrote:

Green...if only dhs had your attitude! LOL

bluebird

Sat, Sep 29 2007, 9:50 pm

You could sew an x or two into the bottom of each sock in different colors of thread so that each pair or style has its own color, if DH doesn't mind.

mommyX2

Sat, Sep 29 2007, 10:04 pm

I never tried the safety pin one...BUT I once ahd a curtain hook stuck in my dryer that cause several loads of laundry to be completely ruined with holes. basically this hook was half lodged in the dryer wall and would snag clothes and they spun around...so I'm a little leary abt this...

leomom ↓

Sat, Sep 29 2007, 10:07 pm

My husband also was not really enthusiastic about tossing out all his beloved socks and replacing them with a bunch of new (identical) ones.

BUT.... either I was sitting around matching subtly different socks or he was scrounging through a pile of clean laundry at the crack of dawn trying to tell a brown sock from a black sock (with about 50% success).

SO... I kept suggesting it, and he eventually agreed to donate his old "collection" to a tzedakah. I then bought ten pairs of "gold-toe" black socks (easy to pick out of a mixed pile of laundry). And the problem is totally and completely solved. Everyone is happy and we haven't looked back since. Very Happy

I highly recommend doing this for the sake of shalom bayis!

↑ lamplighter

Sun, Sep 30 2007, 1:53 am

my sholem bayis is great! he is matching his own socks, and happily doing so...I was jsut looking for another idea aside 4 buying a new slew of socks.

↑ leomom

Sun, Sep 30 2007, 2:39 am

The shalom bayis aspect is obviously minor and I wasn't questioning yours at all. In my case, although my husband "happily" matched his own socks for a long time (years and years), he eventually got tired of scrounging for pairs and gave in to my suggestion. So that minor irritation was eliminated.

But you asked for other suggestions, so here's one: Give your husband a mesh lingerie bag to toss his dirty socks into. Throw the whole bag into the laundry. It won't eliminate the matching problem, but at least his socks will be easy to pull out of the clean laundry heap at once. Then your husband can just do the actual matching, and you won't have to pick them out of the pile first.

Beyond that, if he's willing to stick his socks in those little round plastic sock holders, they do work. We tried them, but it got annoying to keep doing it and we stopped. They'd be a great solution for someone more, um, motivated (OK, less lazy) than we were.