Since becoming a Home Organiser, I’ve been to many different homes. And I now know that odd socks are a very common phenomenon. Or at least they are in south east London. Do you keep ending up with odd socks after doing the laundry? What do you do with these odd socks? Do you have a place for them, and when their other half turns up, you join them up again? Or perhaps you put them in your sock drawer, and hope for the best. There are special gadgets on the market to avoid odd socks. But in this blog I tell you how I personally avoid odd socks. Without the use of any special gadgets.

It’s very simple, I almost can’t make a blog out of it….. But I will. By expanding a bit on my laundry habits.

Three laundry baskets

I have three laundry baskets:

1. One basket for my 60° laundry e.g. bed linen, towels and underwear
   
   
2. A second basket for my 30° laundry e.g. jeans, tops and…….SOCKS
   
   
3. My third and final basket is for our whites, in which I put everything that’s white as I use a detergent to keep these items as white as possible.
   

There are some items that need a delicate cycle or must be washed by hand. I put these items in basket number two or three, depending on their colour, and separate them out when selecting what I’m going to put in the washing machine.

Select your laundry

Whether you use one laundry basket, multiple like me, or have your dirty laundry in a pile on the floor, the first step to avoid odd socks is the same.

When it’s time to put on a load of laundry, I empty my laundry basket completely and make three piles:

1. Items to wash that day
   
   
2. Items which need to be put in a mesh bag, such as lacey underwear and footsies.
   
   
3. Items which need a delicate cycle or must be washed by hand. This pile usually gets washed the day after the main load of laundry.
   

Sometimes there are too many items on pile one and two to fit our washing machine drum. Even though we went for a larger one which fits 9kg. If there are too many items, I put some items from pile one back into the laundry basket. But I NEVER put back any socks. NEVER! All the socks in the basket get washed.

So I put all or most items from pile one and two in the washing machine. And ALWAYS put ALL socks in the wash.

And this is how I avoid odd socks.

Dropped or overlooked socks

Very occasionally, not all dirty socks have gone into the laundry basket. Or sometimes I miss out a sock when selecting the laundry. Also, socks tend to drop, especially on the way from the basket to the washing machine. Why does this happen so often? I guess it’s their small size, easy to slip through your fingers.

Some washing machine brands have cottoned onto this and have developed machines which you can open after you’ve turned it on, so that you can add any forgotten items. According to research conducted by Samsung, about 90% of consumers in Europe say that they wanted to put more clothes in the washing machine after a wash cycle had started. Samsung calls these machines AddWash. Bosch calls them ReLoad.

My AEG hasn’t got an interesting name for this feature, but my machine does allow me to add or take out laundry after the wash cycle has started. If your machine doesn’t have this feature, don’t panic! We’re only talking about odd socks anyway!! Read on to find out what I do when I accidentally end up with odd socks.

There’s always one odd sock that slips the net!

Sometimes, I end up with odd socks after I’ve done a wash cycle, hung up my laundry and folded everything once dry. What I do in that instance? I fold any odd socks and put them in my sock drawer singly. And within two more loads of laundry the other sock always turns up again.

In my home, there are only two single socks. They both belong to me, and I still wear them by mixing-and-matching. I like them too much to throw them out. How did I end up with single socks, even though I’ve been using my no-more-odd-socks method for years? It happened on holiday a couple of years ago.

We went camping and used a communal washing machine in the wash block. I suspect my socks fell en-route from our tent to the washing machine. Or on the way back…. It actually made me a little sad, because I really loved those socks. But I still love them mix-and-match style.

How to avoid odd socks – 3 simple steps

To summarise what I’ve written in this blog post, here are my three steps to avoid odd socks.

To summarise what I’ve written in this blog post, here are my three steps to avoid odd socks.

1. Put your dirty laundry into a basket or a bag. Don’t leave it lying around in random places.
   
   
2. When doing a load of laundry, empty your laundry basket completely, and always add ALL socks to your load, if you’re doing a load which includes socks.
   
   
3. If you do end up with single socks after doing your laundry, just fold these up. Put them in your sock drawer, and make a pair when the other sock turns up.
   

Declutter, organise and fold your socks

Now that I’ve shared how you can avoid odd socks, I’d like to suggest to now do this:

1. In the next week, try to pair up all of your odd socks
   
   
2. If the other half seems permanently lost, either recycle these or keep on wearing them mix-and-match style
   

I also recommend sorting through your sock drawer, deciding which pairs you’d like to keep/discard, and then fold and store the keepers Marie-Kondo-style. But more on this in a future blog.