Socks

It's a quiet evening. The kids are asleep. Tomorrow is Saturday. Sean's out with his Dad.

I know what I should be doing, but I'm in denial. Okay, it's more like I'm avoiding it like the plague.

In my laundry room at this moment (and at any given moment) are four baskets of unmatched socks. Summer and sandals have afforded me the luxury of making my little collection. But even I know it is out of control. The weather has gotten a little cooler this week and there are 18 naked feet now crying out for cover.

I first realized I had a serious problem when we were moving from our first home. The realtor came over to make our house "show" worthy and as we began to move furniture the socks came crawling out of the woodwork. It was amazing. Had she not been a good friend with four small children of her own I would have been embarrassed.

I've tried just about everything. A special sock basket for the laundry (the baby kept taking them all over the house) Pinning the socks (pins cause injury) Rolling dirty socks up in balls (they neither wash or dry well this way).

Currently, I have confiscated all socks and placed them under lock and key in our bedroom. One must come and ask Mom for socks. This has eliminated the digging through the drawer and pulling apart the pairs in hopes of finding the favorites. But they always end up in the same place- in baskets in the laundry room. Ahh!

If you do the math there are 63 pairs of socks that need to be worn, washed, matched and put away on a weekly basis. And the amazing thing is I can't remember the last pair of socks that I purchased. People so graciously give us socks all the time. My cup (in the shape of a basket) runneth over!

So, here I go for my end of the summer fling.

How do you handle socks at your house? What works for you?