1) Any striped sock goes with any other striped sock, of the approximate same texture.
2) Any cotton athletic sock goes with any other cotton athletic sock, of the approximate same length.
3) Any technical sock (e.g. smartwool, fleece) goes with any other technical sock.
4) No grey socks with brown shoes.
5) No brown socks with black shoes.
6) Pink socks go with anything, as do soft blue socks with little sheep on them.
7) Choose socks for texture and warmth over anything else.
8) The most bang for your clothing buck can come from splurging on socks. You can buy fabulous socks, luxurious and whimsical, at TJ Maxx, for not very much money, and when you pull them on you will feel warm and delighted, and they will make you feel like this every wearing until they have holes in them and you have to throw them out.
9) No socks with holes, no matter how well they have served you in the past.
My biggest problem with socks is how to store them. Does anyone have a good storage solution for socks? My best solution was a drawer with compartments, with striped socks in one, athletic socks in another, brown/black socks in one, and technical socks in one. But the truth is I only had three compartments in the drawer so one category was forever shifting and homeless, and would end up on the top of my bureau. Now most of my socks have migrated there. It's no good.
well, mine are currently in a big pile on the sofa in my bedroom, but they are supposed to be in 2 bins and a laundry basket at the bottom of my closet. I made a rule a long time ago not to sort socks so when I find socks I like I buy about 2 weeks worth. So smartwools (cold weather) are in one bin, padded low-cut athletic socks (warm weather) are in another, and the assorted dress socks are in the laundry basket. I can grab two socks quickly from one of the bins since they don't have to be matched (they are all the same), and if I need dress socks (rare) I can dig around in the laundry basket until I find a matching pair (every once in a while I'll pair up & roll the socks in the laundry basket, which interestingly enough makes me wear the ones that don't get rolled over and over again because its easy to leave the rolled ones out when searching for a matching pair). There's an algorithm / mathematical expression for all of that, I feel sure. I bet everyone has a silly sock system of one sort or another. I didn't really realize my system was so ridiculous until I stopped just now to give it some thought. What an awesome topic.
Posted by: rob | October 23, 2006 at 09:15 AM
I have them sorted by color into shoe boxes in a drawer, but really there's not much of a system except keeping the athletic socks separate from the others.
Posted by: Zarah | October 23, 2006 at 10:35 AM
i keep them all in a basket on a shelf and don't try and sort or organize.
Posted by: | October 23, 2006 at 11:02 AM
Three drawers: the largest containing athletic and outdoorsy socks, and the two on each side of that, with one containing lighter dressy socks and the other containing the darker dressy ones. Unmatched ones float around the room, stuck in various places at various times, all tied together hoping to be mated one day.
Posted by: mr. NBT | October 23, 2006 at 11:26 AM
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?PRODID=59815&CATID=160&searchId=6012105&itemIndex=6
because I'm an organization nut, and I love the container store
Posted by: Nicole | October 23, 2006 at 12:02 PM
Another shoebox girl here. But that's because I'm too cheap for the nice stuff from the container store. I aspire to the neat rows of folded socks, I have balled socks in six shoeboxes in the drawer instead.
But really: why sort? If it is light when you put them on, and you have them balled, just rifle through the sock balls in the morning. I have to organize because I have to dress in the dark! All those rules about socks with shoes do you no good if you dress in the dark and don't have strict rules about sock locations in the drawer. I hang the navy blue on one end of the closet and the black on the other, too.
What gets majorly old is balling socks for the millions of tiny feet in the house. I think we have conservatively 40 pairs of kid socks (that fit - 90 if you count the hangers-on that don't), most all white of various types. Mostly unisex, thank God. But if you want to view the very nightmare of the depths of bad sock maintenance, keep three 5 year olds in socks.
Posted by: Elfie | October 23, 2006 at 01:48 PM
I love the rules...and I think they make pretty good sense to me. But, then again, I have two pairs of SmartWool socks that has forever been one blue and one black in each... Gee did it a couple of times, and in the following six years I've never been able to keep them from being paired like that...no matter how hard I've tried.
Posted by: AdriftAtSea | October 23, 2006 at 03:36 PM
This post is too cute. I think I may adopt some of your rules.
Posted by: Jill | October 23, 2006 at 09:50 PM
You mean you are suppose to put your socks in drawers? laughing! Note to self.. get socks off the floor of husband's closet j/k
Posted by: Mr NBT's sis | October 23, 2006 at 10:26 PM
Jil got here first and took my line... I keep my socks in color coded piles on a shelf.
Posted by: wab | October 24, 2006 at 12:06 AM
This post made me smile. I need some new socks this Christmas!
Posted by: Stephanie | October 24, 2006 at 05:25 AM
I hate socks. They are a bane, a scourge, a necessary evil.
I do not wear socks unless I have to. Yeah, I have some nylon knee-highs that I can wear with slacks for more formal occasions. But for work, I mostly do without socks.
For workouts and sailing, I do have athletic socks. The problem is that it is really hard to find good socks. Here in the desert, it is nearly impossible to find socks that aren't all or mostly cotton. The problem is that my feet sweat heavily all the time, even when they're cold, and cotton socks quickly get soggy, at which point they cease to be either warm or cushiony.
I do have one other problem, and that is that my feet are very small. This means that most socks don't fit very well -- typically the heel of the sock ends up somewhere around the Achilles tendon, and the poor fit of the sock leads to blisters. When I find a good-quality non-cotton sock, it's always in an adult size; the children's sizes, which fit my feet, are almost always cotton.
And when I do find socks that are non-cotton and also in children's sizes, they seem to be marketed for the children of very wealthy people -- they're far more expensive than I could ever imagine spending on something as lowly as socks.
As for how I sort my socks: I ball them together in pairs and toss them in a single drawer, with the nylon knee-highs off to the side.
Posted by: Carol Anne | October 24, 2006 at 05:33 AM
My wife Kerri simply pegs socks together and then washes,dries and stores them (still pegged together ) This system saves her so much time and we never have any more lost socks.
Posted by: Stan Wierzbicki | February 06, 2007 at 08:02 PM
My socks go black. i have no idea why they never used to - my feet are clean and dont sweat THAT much but when i have fashionable coloured socks and i wear them with certain shoes my socks get black stains on them its driving me crazy and is costing alot of money..can someone please help!!
Posted by: Eve | May 12, 2007 at 02:18 PM
you know, I just thought of this, how about one of those motorized tie racks? LOL!
Posted by: Steve | June 20, 2007 at 10:03 PM
very well thoughts for socks. I have enjoyed a lot by reading your post. Its different at all to wear two different socks at a time. Amazing. Thanks for sharing!
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