When I do my laundry, I always match my socks. I don’t organize them in my sock drawer by color or anything like that, but I do match them. Brendan always makes fun of me for my matchmaking tendencies, but I’m convinced I’m in the majority. So mwahaha. I’m airing our clean laundry and all of you can prove me right. Do you match your socks too?
Oh, of course! Except when someone else does the laundry. They still match the pairs, but somehow something always ends up odd. I haven’t ever figured out why that is, but we must have at least a hundred lonely socks waiting in the closet.
Dude, matching socks is dumb. It’s so much less time-consuming to just find matching socks in the morning. Or, if not less time-consuming, definitely less annoying.
My drawer is full of socks. Some are matched. Most not. Worst is that winter and summer socks are mixed up. Stretched out socks, cashmere socks that slip in some shoes and socks that are too thick for my current shoes. Socks have to match shoes. A few years ago I took to buying six pair of the same sock. Worked for a while and then I still couldn’t find a pair. My father in law put a brass safety pin in pairs before putting them in the laundry. I can’t find the brass safety pins I bought. On the subject of socks - I’m in the rag trade. At the Outdoor Retailer show two weeks ago in Salt Lake City I saw two new developments in socks - alpaca socks from Peru that have copper fiber twised into the yarns - something about keeping you warm and your nervous system in balance. From Taiwan there were socks that don’t stink. Bamboo is turned to charcoal and the charcoal is mixed with molten polyester before the fiber is drawn. The sock comes in black only. They work! I test wore them in my stinky Keen sandals. After a day of wearing I sniffed the cotton and the charcoal socks. Not a test I’ll try again. Charcoal won. Best trade show swag ever.
Better than that. Some years ago I got tired of wasting time and energy looking for matching pairs among the clean socks, as well as forever having to wonder how the washing process seemed always to be eating one sock at a time. I got a bunch of diaper pins and started pinning my socks in pairs as I took them off. Diaper pins are easy to use and go through the wash just fine. Result: my socks always come back clean and paired. I figure the time it takes is (excuse the pun) a wash.
I’ve always matched my socks, even when I was a lazy teenager, and even the white one where two different brands would be almost, but not quite, the same. I figure it’s better to choose to spend time matching socks when I have the time than to risk wasting precious seconds if I happen to be running late in the morning. (Or that could just be an ex post facto rationalization for my OCD…)
I take the gahrie approach too–every so often I get rid of all of my current socks, and buy several dozen pairs of identical socks, so no matching is ever required. That way, I avoid the daily probability question of how many socks do I need to pull out of the drawer to get a match.
I roll my socks into a ball and then slam dunk them into my sock drawer. Every now and then one sock gets abducted by aliens and returned to Earth after the aliens are done with their experimentation. If you roll your socks into balls aliens will not abduct them. But if you match them and one is shorter than the other, then you know for sure they have been abducted and experimented with. Therefore, Becky is right.
I’ve never heard of not matching your socks. I always just assumed everyone did that. Besides Becky, are you really gonna take crap from a man who wears velcro shoes?
There are these lovely little things out there called Sock Locks. I’ve got two different kinds: one is a disk / ring with ‘teeth’ that you pull the pair of socks through and the other is a clip type arrangement. The pull-through kind are best for thinner / lighter socks and the clips for the heavy ones.
I buy my socks pre-matched, put them into a SockLock immediately and they stay locked together for the rest of their lives (except when I’m wearing them).
Diaper pins sound like they’d be just about as cheap but they require making holes in your sock and give you a chance to stab yourself.
Only you, Mike, would include the phrase “daily probability question� in a discussion of socks. LOL!
Brendan, i know your a liberal arts weenie and all, but honestly did you NEVER take a math class in probabilty? Pulling socks from a draw til you get a matching pair is one of the most frequently used probability examples out there.
You know, you have 20 black socks and 20 red socks in a drawer, how many socks do you need to pull out to ensure you have a pair? (the answer of course being 3).
It seems pointless to me. Espicially when you consider that I use only two colors of socks with a few “nice” pairs. Thus, no point in matching them since about half the socks are gray, and half are black.
I find it interesting that this post has received the most comments of any in recent weeks.
FYI - I do everything within my power to match, but sometimes I have to give in to the Loki-like powers of my f-ing dryer and wear what I got. However, matching is the right way to go. Otherwise you look kinda like a ‘tard.
Of course I match my socks. (Besides, white and black would look really, really strange!)
matching is the right way to go. Otherwise you look kinda like a ‘tard.
I’m not sure if everyone here understands the question completely. It’s not a question of whether you match the socks when you wear them. Of course I match my socks when I put them on in the morning — and I even usually succeed! :) Certainly, I don’t wear blatantly mismatched socks (I say “blatantly” because really, if I’m wearing a white athletic sock and another white athletic sock that’s slightly longer, but I roll them both down to the same point on my leg, who’s going to notice? On the other hand, if we we’re talking one black sock and one white sock, obviously people would notice. I don’t do that.)
No, the question isn’t whether one wears matching socks, the question is whether one matches one’s socks before putting them away after doing laundry. My preferred method is to just throw the socks into the sock drawer and find a matching pair in the morning. In the long run, this is probably quite inefficient, but I’d rather deal on multiple occasions with the 10-second annoyance of finding a matching sock instead of wasting several minutes all at once matching all of my socks… even if all the 10-second annoynces actually add up to a longer amount of time. Why? Because I want to avoid Kathryn’s fate: “I do match socks, and it is one of the most dreaded tasks of the week.” Why do it if it’s going to be dreadful? I’ll find matching socks in the morning, that’s my theory. So just throw ‘em into a pile and move on. :)
If you have many socks–especially in similar colors and styles–of course you match them after doing laundry. Otherwise, you’ll either be: 1) wasting time trying to find a match while you’re rushing to work in the morning, or 2) wearing similar-looking, but mis-matched socks all day.
But if your socks’ “colors and styles” are sufficiently “similar,” who is going to know, or care, that they might technically be “mis-matched”? To elaborate on what I said earlier: if I wear one pair of white athletic socks that’s 18 inches long, and another that’s 24 inches long, and they have basically the same pattern, and I scrunch them down to the same length on my leg, how is that in any way a problem? Besides, 90% of the time I can find perfectly matching socks within a few seconds, and the other 10% of the time I can still almost always find either final perfectly matching socks fairly quickly, or imperfectly matching socks right away. The only time I can’t, generally, is when I need to do laundry. At which point it becomes a question of finding matching dirty-but-not-too-smelly socks. But now I’m giving you more information than you need. :)
I only wear athletic socks. (I have a casual lifestyle.) Some are all white. Some have a grayed sole. Most have a grayed heal. The ones with a gray heal also spell out “Haynes” below the toe, although some spell out “HAYNES”.
For some reason, I cannot match a “Haynes” with a “HAYNES”.
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August 29th, 2006 at 11:07:35 pm
Oh, of course! Except when someone else does the laundry. They still match the pairs, but somehow something always ends up odd. I haven’t ever figured out why that is, but we must have at least a hundred lonely socks waiting in the closet.
August 29th, 2006 at 11:09:57 pm
Dude, matching socks is dumb. It’s so much less time-consuming to just find matching socks in the morning. Or, if not less time-consuming, definitely less annoying.
August 29th, 2006 at 11:09:58 pm
Of course….
But maybe it also says something about your wardrobe having more variety than brendan’s. He impresses me as a white sock type of guy.
You haven’t updated since June your site, when do you plan to start blogging again?
August 29th, 2006 at 11:10:29 pm
Brendan is right!
August 29th, 2006 at 11:12:09 pm
Becky smells like poo.
August 29th, 2006 at 11:14:44 pm
LOUD NOISES
August 29th, 2006 at 11:15:12 pm
I like it when there is a giant pile of socks and other laundry in the floor for me to lie on.
P.S. Woof.
August 29th, 2006 at 11:19:23 pm
Of course. I have never meant a person who doesn’t match their socks.
August 29th, 2006 at 11:19:38 pm
Of course I match my socks — otherwise it would just be a pile of socks in the drawer. No organization!
August 29th, 2006 at 11:38:53 pm
Athletic socks need to be sorted?
August 29th, 2006 at 11:48:31 pm
A Nun Mouse and I agree on something!! Someone write this down. Next you’ll be telling me Ned Lamont doesn’t match his socks either. :)
August 30th, 2006 at 12:02:43 am
I simply buy about two dozen pairs of identical socks and just dump them in my sock drawer. That way any two socks I pull out will match.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:26:10 am
i color code my socks.i use a color marker and put a different color dot on all my socks
August 30th, 2006 at 12:34:09 am
My drawer is full of socks. Some are matched. Most not. Worst is that winter and summer socks are mixed up. Stretched out socks, cashmere socks that slip in some shoes and socks that are too thick for my current shoes. Socks have to match shoes. A few years ago I took to buying six pair of the same sock. Worked for a while and then I still couldn’t find a pair. My father in law put a brass safety pin in pairs before putting them in the laundry. I can’t find the brass safety pins I bought. On the subject of socks - I’m in the rag trade. At the Outdoor Retailer show two weeks ago in Salt Lake City I saw two new developments in socks - alpaca socks from Peru that have copper fiber twised into the yarns - something about keeping you warm and your nervous system in balance. From Taiwan there were socks that don’t stink. Bamboo is turned to charcoal and the charcoal is mixed with molten polyester before the fiber is drawn. The sock comes in black only. They work! I test wore them in my stinky Keen sandals. After a day of wearing I sniffed the cotton and the charcoal socks. Not a test I’ll try again. Charcoal won. Best trade show swag ever.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:34:17 am
yes, i match my socks! They come in pairs for a reason, and they should stay together.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:35:37 am
Ned Lamont doesn’t match his socks. That’s why you have a valet!
Ned: I don’t actually have a valet. The family does.
August 30th, 2006 at 2:00:36 am
I match socks and fold them… I hate missing socks!
PS Brendan we sent you the clip from the movie
good night !
August 30th, 2006 at 5:29:27 am
Definiately match socks. You don’t want a brown and a blue accidently getting put on when you are heading for work at 5:30 am.
August 30th, 2006 at 6:15:18 am
Better than that. Some years ago I got tired of wasting time and energy looking for matching pairs among the clean socks, as well as forever having to wonder how the washing process seemed always to be eating one sock at a time. I got a bunch of diaper pins and started pinning my socks in pairs as I took them off. Diaper pins are easy to use and go through the wash just fine. Result: my socks always come back clean and paired. I figure the time it takes is (excuse the pun) a wash.
August 30th, 2006 at 10:16:15 am
As much of a pain it is- I always fold socks together in pairs- and of course, my husband doesn’t…
August 30th, 2006 at 10:48:38 am
I have 45 pairs of identical socks. Bought them back when buying clothes was easier than washing them. Matching is a breeze.
August 30th, 2006 at 10:51:09 am
always match my socks…and fold them.
I also match socks to underwear to belt…everyday..
August 30th, 2006 at 10:53:26 am
I’ve always matched my socks, even when I was a lazy teenager, and even the white one where two different brands would be almost, but not quite, the same. I figure it’s better to choose to spend time matching socks when I have the time than to risk wasting precious seconds if I happen to be running late in the morning. (Or that could just be an ex post facto rationalization for my OCD…)
August 30th, 2006 at 10:55:47 am
I take the gahrie approach too–every so often I get rid of all of my current socks, and buy several dozen pairs of identical socks, so no matching is ever required. That way, I avoid the daily probability question of how many socks do I need to pull out of the drawer to get a match.
August 30th, 2006 at 10:58:44 am
I roll my socks into a ball and then slam dunk them into my sock drawer. Every now and then one sock gets abducted by aliens and returned to Earth after the aliens are done with their experimentation. If you roll your socks into balls aliens will not abduct them. But if you match them and one is shorter than the other, then you know for sure they have been abducted and experimented with. Therefore, Becky is right.
August 30th, 2006 at 10:58:44 am
Mine also match. Jeez Brendan! :)
August 30th, 2006 at 10:59:29 am
Only you, Mike, would include the phrase “daily probability question” in a discussion of socks. LOL!
On a related note… 24 comments, and no political flaming yet? Jeez, c’mon people! How about:
Joe Lieberman wears Republican socks!
Dick Cheney wears Hitler’s socks!
Cindy Sheehan doesn’t wear socks!
George Bush doesn’t care about white socks!
August 30th, 2006 at 11:14:10 am
I do match socks, and it is one of the most dreaded tasks of the week.
August 30th, 2006 at 11:38:01 am
I’ve never heard of not matching your socks. I always just assumed everyone did that. Besides Becky, are you really gonna take crap from a man who wears velcro shoes?
August 30th, 2006 at 12:44:05 pm
You still wear Velcro shoes?
August 30th, 2006 at 12:49:03 pm
I freakin love my velcro shoes. So convenient at the airport! And for generalized laziness!
August 30th, 2006 at 12:49:43 pm
Don’t diss the velcro shoes. It takes a real man to wear velcro shoes.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:55:51 pm
Dear sockpuppet (or shoepuppet)
But what does that have to do with Brendan ?
(mallards, grinning)
August 30th, 2006 at 12:57:03 pm
Why would mallards be grinning? Isn’t it more likely that they’d be quacking?
August 30th, 2006 at 1:37:19 pm
I bet Velcro shoes go well with the fanny pack too!
August 30th, 2006 at 1:38:41 pm
There are these lovely little things out there called Sock Locks. I’ve got two different kinds: one is a disk / ring with ‘teeth’ that you pull the pair of socks through and the other is a clip type arrangement. The pull-through kind are best for thinner / lighter socks and the clips for the heavy ones.
I buy my socks pre-matched, put them into a SockLock immediately and they stay locked together for the rest of their lives (except when I’m wearing them).
Diaper pins sound like they’d be just about as cheap but they require making holes in your sock and give you a chance to stab yourself.
August 30th, 2006 at 1:49:04 pm
I bet Velcro shoes go well with the fanny pack too!
Yup. :)
August 30th, 2006 at 1:55:02 pm
I wonder if the issue is a gender gap. All the girls I’ve known have matched socks and all the guys I’ve known haven’t.
By the way, as a girl, I naturally match my socks. :)
August 30th, 2006 at 2:31:52 pm
I match my socks. Still, what does this have to do with Bush being dictatorial?
August 30th, 2006 at 2:58:44 pm
Whaddya think I am, a math professor? Of course I match my socks. (Besides, white and black would look really, really strange!)
August 30th, 2006 at 4:35:22 pm
I buy white socks, therefore no matching needed.
I match my socks. Still, what does this have to do with Bush being dictatorial?
It doesn’t, it just has to do with him being racist. George W. Bush doesn’t care about black socks after all.
August 30th, 2006 at 4:39:40 pm
Only you, Mike, would include the phrase “daily probability question� in a discussion of socks. LOL!
Brendan, i know your a liberal arts weenie and all, but honestly did you NEVER take a math class in probabilty? Pulling socks from a draw til you get a matching pair is one of the most frequently used probability examples out there.
You know, you have 20 black socks and 20 red socks in a drawer, how many socks do you need to pull out to ensure you have a pair? (the answer of course being 3).
August 30th, 2006 at 4:46:58 pm
Pardon me while I swallow this frisbee.
August 30th, 2006 at 5:09:38 pm
I don’t match no socks.
It seems pointless to me. Espicially when you consider that I use only two colors of socks with a few “nice” pairs. Thus, no point in matching them since about half the socks are gray, and half are black.
August 30th, 2006 at 7:52:43 pm
I find it interesting that this post has received the most comments of any in recent weeks.
FYI - I do everything within my power to match, but sometimes I have to give in to the Loki-like powers of my f-ing dryer and wear what I got. However, matching is the right way to go. Otherwise you look kinda like a ‘tard.
August 30th, 2006 at 8:02:43 pm
Of course I match my socks. (Besides, white and black would look really, really strange!)
matching is the right way to go. Otherwise you look kinda like a ‘tard.
I’m not sure if everyone here understands the question completely. It’s not a question of whether you match the socks when you wear them. Of course I match my socks when I put them on in the morning — and I even usually succeed! :) Certainly, I don’t wear blatantly mismatched socks (I say “blatantly” because really, if I’m wearing a white athletic sock and another white athletic sock that’s slightly longer, but I roll them both down to the same point on my leg, who’s going to notice? On the other hand, if we we’re talking one black sock and one white sock, obviously people would notice. I don’t do that.)
No, the question isn’t whether one wears matching socks, the question is whether one matches one’s socks before putting them away after doing laundry. My preferred method is to just throw the socks into the sock drawer and find a matching pair in the morning. In the long run, this is probably quite inefficient, but I’d rather deal on multiple occasions with the 10-second annoyance of finding a matching sock instead of wasting several minutes all at once matching all of my socks… even if all the 10-second annoynces actually add up to a longer amount of time. Why? Because I want to avoid Kathryn’s fate: “I do match socks, and it is one of the most dreaded tasks of the week.” Why do it if it’s going to be dreadful? I’ll find matching socks in the morning, that’s my theory. So just throw ‘em into a pile and move on. :)
August 30th, 2006 at 9:11:34 pm
If you have many socks–especially in similar colors and styles–of course you match them after doing laundry. Otherwise, you’ll either be: 1) wasting time trying to find a match while you’re rushing to work in the morning, or 2) wearing similar-looking, but mis-matched socks all day.
August 30th, 2006 at 9:32:54 pm
But if your socks’ “colors and styles” are sufficiently “similar,” who is going to know, or care, that they might technically be “mis-matched”? To elaborate on what I said earlier: if I wear one pair of white athletic socks that’s 18 inches long, and another that’s 24 inches long, and they have basically the same pattern, and I scrunch them down to the same length on my leg, how is that in any way a problem? Besides, 90% of the time I can find perfectly matching socks within a few seconds, and the other 10% of the time I can still almost always find either final perfectly matching socks fairly quickly, or imperfectly matching socks right away. The only time I can’t, generally, is when I need to do laundry. At which point it becomes a question of finding matching dirty-but-not-too-smelly socks. But now I’m giving you more information than you need. :)
August 30th, 2006 at 10:23:01 pm
Hmmm … for the people that match their socks … (or even the ones that don’t …) …
So David’s would have to be long and tubular …
Toni’s would be handsome and practical, yet attractive …
A Nun Mouse’s would be logically mismatched and lamé only spelled differently …
Mike’s would be dark and moiré …
August 31st, 2006 at 1:26:19 am
I match my socks by CASE. Seriously.
I only wear athletic socks. (I have a casual lifestyle.) Some are all white. Some have a grayed sole. Most have a grayed heal. The ones with a gray heal also spell out “Haynes” below the toe, although some spell out “HAYNES”.
For some reason, I cannot match a “Haynes” with a “HAYNES”.