A Crafty Way to Sort Socks Fast.
by Vyger in Living > Organizing
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A Crafty Way to Sort Socks Fast.
Sorting socks is one of those nuisance things that you need to do that really eats up time. So I found a way to make it easier to match up socks after they come out of the dryer. I didn't think anything of it and have been doing it my way for years. Then while visiting with my daughter a few months ago she noticed the colored thread in my socks and asked what it was there for. I explained that it was to make it easier to match them up. We soon found ourselves having a sock conversation with some of her friends. One lady who was married a few years ago said that her husband is a sock fanatic. That he couldn't take the time to match them and so was just buying new ones all the time. Shortly after they were married she spent a whole day matching up his 100 plus pairs. Another commented that her husband said that his socks had to be matched and folded together but never put one inside the other because he thought it stretched out the elastic. Well, after all of this discussion I didn't feel to bad that I want my socks to match, not just in color but also in wear.
I buy mostly the same color and brand of socks as I have come to find them to be the most comfortable for me. I absolutely hate it when I am wearing snow boots, cutting firewood or shoveling snow and my stupid socks are working their way off my feet and down into the toe of the boots. I Have to pull the boots off and yank the socks back up. Once that happens I never buy those type again. So I know what socks I like. I get them in 3 pair packs when they are on sale. The problem is even though they are from the same company they never seem to be the same from one year to the next. And after being worn a while they get thin on the bottoms. So if you put a new one with an old one the colors might match but they don't fit the same or feel the same. Because of this I like to match them up with the ones that I bought together at the same time. That used to mean going through them and comparing the wear on the bottoms and matching them with ones that looked the same. It just took forever. SO I hit on the idea of sowing a different colored thread into the toe every time I bought new socks. It's simple, all the ones with blue thread were bought together, red, yellow, and so on. Now to sort socks all I have to do is pick them up by the toe, match up the thread colors and its done. Way less time, way less aggravation, and they always match. If the threads don't match the socks don't match.
I buy mostly the same color and brand of socks as I have come to find them to be the most comfortable for me. I absolutely hate it when I am wearing snow boots, cutting firewood or shoveling snow and my stupid socks are working their way off my feet and down into the toe of the boots. I Have to pull the boots off and yank the socks back up. Once that happens I never buy those type again. So I know what socks I like. I get them in 3 pair packs when they are on sale. The problem is even though they are from the same company they never seem to be the same from one year to the next. And after being worn a while they get thin on the bottoms. So if you put a new one with an old one the colors might match but they don't fit the same or feel the same. Because of this I like to match them up with the ones that I bought together at the same time. That used to mean going through them and comparing the wear on the bottoms and matching them with ones that looked the same. It just took forever. SO I hit on the idea of sowing a different colored thread into the toe every time I bought new socks. It's simple, all the ones with blue thread were bought together, red, yellow, and so on. Now to sort socks all I have to do is pick them up by the toe, match up the thread colors and its done. Way less time, way less aggravation, and they always match. If the threads don't match the socks don't match.
When You Get New Socks Sow a Colored Thread in the Toe
You don't have to be a great seamstress to do this. Just find a bright color of thread and a fairly large needle. Stitch it up and down from one side to the other and back. Don't make it tight, the sock needs to stretch a little so leave some slack in the thread. Sow it in a place where you can easily see it.
Match Up the Threads and Your Done
Now after you get the socks out of the dryer, or off the clothes line, grab them all by the toe. Match up the colored threads and put them in pairs. All organized and matched just that fast. Whether you roll them into a ball or just stack them is your personal preference but whatever you do it will be a lot faster and you will always get them right.
When I first started doing this I only sowed the thread into the new ones I bought. I left the old ones unmarked. Now its the older ones without the thread that are always in the bottom of the basket. I do the threaded ones and then skip the rest until I get a few extra minutes to match them up. Somehow I never seem to get them done.
It takes a few minutes to sow the thread into them when you first get them, but the time you save later makes it well worth the effort. Its an easy fix for another of those little aggravations that we deal with every day.
When I first started doing this I only sowed the thread into the new ones I bought. I left the old ones unmarked. Now its the older ones without the thread that are always in the bottom of the basket. I do the threaded ones and then skip the rest until I get a few extra minutes to match them up. Somehow I never seem to get them done.
It takes a few minutes to sow the thread into them when you first get them, but the time you save later makes it well worth the effort. Its an easy fix for another of those little aggravations that we deal with every day.