5 Ways to Keep Socks Together Through Washing and Drying

Are you tired of loosing single socks in the wash? Here are some handy ways to make sure your sock pairs stay together!

Ever since I was a child I have been convinced that there is a left sock and a right sock to each pair and that my pairs just don't feel right if I am wearing a left sock from one pair and a right sock from a different pair. So over the years I have devised a number of ways to keep my socks mated, even when they go through the washer and dryer.

Safety Pins ~
Put a container for safety pins in your sock drawer and another container near your dirty laundry hamper (or near wherever you sit when you take off your socks). When you are taking off your dirty socks, pin them together at the ankles with your safety pin and let them go through the washer and dryer pinned together.

When they come out of the dryer, fold them up with the safety pin still in them and stack them in the drawer that way. Then each time you pull a fresh pair out of the drawer slip the pin off, drop it in the small container in your drawer and you will know that you always have the same two socks traveling together, whether they are on your feet, in the washer, or in the dryer.

Every once and a while you will have to take the pins out of your drawer and use them to fill up the container by your dirty laundry hamper. But other than moving the pins back and forth you should be able to use the pins over and over for years.

Plastic Sock Circles ~
You can purchase little plastic circles with teeth in them to slide your socks through and hold two socks together. The circle is about an inch and a half in diameter and has little triangle teeth on the inside so that it grabs onto your socks. You pull both socks together through the same circle, and it will hold them together as they go through the washer and dryer.

I have had good luck using these, but for some reason they tend to get lost more often then the safety pins do and they are much more expensive to replace. But they do come in several colors so you can color code different socks for different members of the family, which is very handy.

Rubber Bands ~
Using the same two containers that you would have used for safety pins, you can do the same thing with rubber bands. If you are in a household with small children and you don't want pins around, the rubber bands at least aren't sharp. If you have very small children and you don't even want rubber bands around where they might get swallowed, you can also try using hair ties. They are a little sturdier and again they come in colors so that you separate different people in the house by color.

Laundry Marker ~
Laundry marker pens marketed under the name 'Rub-A-Dub', make an indelible mark on fabric. You can make a mark on the inside cuff of each of your socks so that even when they get separated you will be able to match them back together. I started with letters of the alphabet and simply labeled the first set 'A' and the second set 'B' and so on, until I had all my socks labeled with single letters of the alphabet.

With this method you don't have to try to keep them together as you wash them, you can just let them tumble through on their own and then sort them out when they come out of the dryer, making sure that the A sock goes together with the other A sock, the B sock with the other B sock and so on.

Different Colors ~
If you want an easy way to tell your socks apart without any marking or any extra equipment to help keep them together, simply don't buy any socks that are the same color of any other socks you already own. Instead of buying a package of six or eight all-white socks, get the multi-pack of colored socks, so that you will have one pair that is red, and one pair that is blue, one that is black, and so on. As long as you always buy more socks that are different colors or patterns from the ones that you already own, you will be able to tell which ones are which just by looking at the colors.

If you're like me, and can't stand to see your socks get mixed up and separated from each other in the wash, one of these methods should be able to help you.

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