Most Dreaded Household Chores: Mating Socks

Household chores must be faced by everyone who has a household. Some of these chores are inevitably faced with dread. They can be avoided for a time, but eventually the chore must be done. For some, the worst household chore is mopping floors, for others it is cleaning toilets, or even doing dishes or laundry. In this household, the worst and most dreaded household chore has always been mating socks.

Yes, mating socks is the chore that no one wants. The sock basket sits dauntingly, once the laundry is through. It is a boring chore that never ends. Mate all the socks you want, and there's still some in there. Oh, but what if the mate shows up under the couch while vacuuming? It's got to be somewhere. Did the dog run off with the other one? Oh, where could those last few mates be?

As three boys grew up in the household, attempts to solve the sock mating dilemma included buying socks that were all the same. It never failed, some would end up with stretched elastic or mud stained from a day out go-karting, or something, so one was still not the same. Holes in the toes or heels warrant getting tossed, too, so it was the chore that was still the same. Mating socks has always been the never-ending battle that no one wants to fight.

Another attempt to streamline the chore was to buy sets of socks that were all different. This would make it easy to match them, wouldn't it? No. That mysterious sock vortex still sucked up one of these perfect matches, leaving, again, leftovers in the basket.

In an Attempt to make this chore less boring, TV time also became sock mating time. This is easy enough, isn't it? One or two of the boys was assigned to the sock mating chore while watching TV. Maybe multitasking is the answer. No. The TV is just too engrossing, and the boredom of the sock basket still leaves it half full when the night is through.

Thus, twenty-something years into this dreaded family household chore, aaahhh, now it comes. The perfect solution to the dreaded sock mating chore is... a sock clip. Oh, how simple. Clip the socks together when they come off the feet, throw them in the laundry basket, and wash and dry them, still clipped together. Out of the dryer comes an already-mated, squeaky clean pair of socks, ready to put in the drawer. Maybe this would work.

Now, on to find the clip...