This is a sock.
A why-do-they-take-their-shoes-off-but-not-their-socks-when-they’re-playing-outside sock.
As I’m folding laundry, it DOES register that socks like these should be tossed straight into the trashcan. Unlike towels on the bathroom floor, I do see the holes and acknowledge the sock’s worthlessness.
But this summer, I had to make a VERY conscious decision to grab a trashcan and place it next to me as I folded clothes. I made myself throw away any severely discolored or overly-airy socks.
Why is this so hard for me?
I don’t trust myself. I know that even when I know we need something, I have a wonderful ability to spend hours at the store getting everything we need . . . but that. Hubby feels like he hit the jackpot when I actually remember something he requested.
The logical solution would be to make a list. And I do that.
Regularly.
And then, just as regularly, I lose the list. Or I remember just where it is sitting on the front seat of the Suburban at the point when my cart is half full and I don’t feel like running out to the parking lot.
Or, I remember the list, check it off carefully . . . and realize when I get home that I missed something really important.
I’m often afraid to throw something away because I don’t trust myself to remember to buy another one. And grungy, holey socks are better than no socks at all, right?
Unless the P.E. teacher plans a sock hop.
And just so you know, this is not a randomly written post. It was inspired by the fact that I had no clean socks for the boys this morning . . . because I haven’t remembered to go buy more since I threw all those away.
In July.
Note to self: Buy socks.
Note to self: Don’t lose first note.
Do you take your cell phone into the store with you? Call yourself & read off your list. 1. Repeating something out loud is supposed to help you remember. 2. If you forget/lose your list you have a backup. 3. You can check your voicemail in the store to listen to your list.
I haven’t had to call myself on my cell phone & leave a message – ONLY because I make myself a list on my ipod – which I carry with me all the time (it’s my dayplanner, phone/address book, calculator, mp3 player, note keeper). However, I DO call my answering machine at home & leave messages for myself…. I had to send out our RSVP to…. ummm… my brother’s wedding…. 3 days later than it should have gotten there…. oops… and I forgot it on the counter again… So I called myself & left a message…….. it works for me.
I went through all the socks recently too… it took about 3 weeks before I remembered to buy them but I refused to go through them all until I had already bought the new ones, for that exact reason. I don’t want to be caught without any socks, so I forced myself to buy them first, and then go through them… but I’m very bad with procrastination so it took longer than I wanted it to.
I like the idea of leaving myself a voicemail… I tried using lists on my cell phone, and even though I always have it with me, I never seem to remember that there is a list on it until it’s too late.
Just a Thought…..if you have both, having said child(ren) sew it up is a good reminder not to wear them without shoes. 😀 Or you quick handstitch and give back. Mine learned real quick to either wear shoes or take socks off. Plus they are great for just wearing around house after they take bathes. If you don’t plan on getting to right just put in a small basket on dryer or shelf and then stitch a bunch up at one time when you have time. Just an idea…
Thank you for the laugh this morning.You sound just like my sister’s and myself.Hubby is down to 4 pair of socks because I threw out the holey ones and can’t remember to buy new ones.He wears steel toed shoes so he wears holes in his socks constantly.
Ha! I have this problem too, except it’s with my husband’s holey underwear and t-shirts. I can never remember to get more when I’m at the store. But we have 8 billion socks, because I keep buying them even when we have plenty already. Somebody should do a study on this…. 😀
I hate socks, and like you I don’t throw them out either. But I was so excited last night, I placed not just 1 pair of matched folded socks in hubby’s drawer but 16 pairs. He was excited too.
LOL! I love it and can totally identify with it!
My thing is I could mend the sock and make it last longer…suuuuuure, in my spare time I will darn it….does it happen? No. And then my children (and hubby) run around with embarrassing holes. (Me, I prefer to go barefoot indoors!) Sigh. It’s an elaborate delusion I carry on with myself.
Or if I do actually throw away the sock, I forget to find the mate and then we end up with 92 mateless socks! Which when put in the sock drawer gives the illusion of being all stocked up on socks!
Plus, the dryer eats them….there’s a black hole or something in there…
Sock puppets!!
To eliminate dozens of orphan socks, buy lots of pairs that match. Then you can keep on making more pairs.
It never gets easier. We have a sock basket, which has graduated to a sock DRWERS. Stupid dryer that eats socks! (or is it the monster under the bed that eats single socks and throws me off?) I have a HUGE abundance of socks (thank you, Fred Meyer yearly sock sale!), but am afraid to throw away the lonely single socks because their mate may mysteriously turn up. I honestly have kept toddler socks up until about 3 months ago (my youngest is 12 YEARS old….what WAS I thinking?!).
Nah, for me, it’s hubby’s ratty undershirts and underwear that are horrible. I buy new, but he refuses to part with the old ones. It’s embarrassing.
I rip up my hubby’s ratty undies and then fold them and put them away. I love to hear the groan or laugh in the morning.
I used to do the exact same thing. I would find the beginnings of lists scattered amongst the randomness that is my desk. Now I use ziplist for all of my shopping so I can just type it in when I think of it and the next time I sit to add groceries to the list it’s already there and waiting for me to add to it. If you haven’t tried it, you should. It’s my life saver when it comes to shopping, especially for groceries since I can only shop once a week.
We also have a standing arrangement in our house, everyone but me gets a pack of new socks each time we shop for a new season. That way I can toss socks and never worry about it. As a military wife, I throw away a ton of stuff often just because we move so often and I absolutely hate unpacking things like socks full of holes. But maybe that’s just me.
Is ziplist on your phone? Because I keep telling myself that an iphone would solve most of my slob-problems.
I can get my ziplist from my phone, but I don’t have an iphone. Here in Germany the rates for mobile service are outrageous on them, but I do use a blackberry. I have been a blackberry girl for years and as long as I can get my ziplist and evernote on it I’m a happy girl. They are both perfect for our crazy schedule going from military functions, kid’s practices, etc and having only a min to run in the store to get what we need.
I follow your blog religiously by the way, and I don’t think an iphone is exactly the miracle cure you hope it would be 🙂 I always considered miracle fixes myself, and found out the only cure for my slob tendencies was the embarrassment that comes when the movers show up and you realize you haven’t cleaned under your furniture in the entire year you have lived in that home.
Is there a blog post in the future about the miraculous iphone? 😉
My husband and I just started using Cozi.com. It syncs between our phones and has shopping lists, to do lists, meal plans, a little family journal, and a calendar. I’m loving it. 🙂
I do like the idea of buying more socks at specific times of the year, every year.
I’ve heard great things about Cozi, and will be trying it out soon!
Also, you could take a photo of the list with your cell phone. Just have to remember that you did.
I leave messages on my house phone for myself, too. A new thing I do is send a text msg to my email, especially if it’s a note about something I need to do or look up on the computer!
I have such a problemwith socks too! How is it that we have so many socks floating around the laundry room but no one can ever find socks! Having a kid who can drive is a life saver for those ‘forgotten’ items.
You know all those clutter shows where people are buried in their purchases, and they fess up to be a shopaholic?
Nope not me. I keep things because I’m a shop-a-phobic. That’s why I have a closet full of clothes I can’t wear, or don’t wear or won’t wear, because as long as I have them I can pretend I that I don’t have to go shopping.
I forced myself out last weekend and got three pairs of pants, because my holey sweats had gotten too bad for even me to wear out of the house. Now I’m motivated to throw out half that closet of clothes that remain. Which always leaves me with the same dilema-throw stuff out right away to try and force myself to face the store, or keep the it’ll do in a pinch item until I replace it. This by the way holds not just for clothes but everything. I got over gifted on wooden spoons and spatulas a couple of years ago, and I’ve kept them all because “they’ll wear out eventually and then I’ll have to go to the store.” Like having twice as many as you need of something makes life easier instead of more cluttered and irritating.
Nony if you ever design a de-slobbing camp, sign me up.
Two ways of dealing with socks:
1) The communal pile — This works for groups of people who wear the same size/kind of socks and don’t mind sharing. I worked for my mom, my sister and myself when sister and I were in high school, and is working for sister’s three girls now.
2) On advise from a friend who owned a clothing store, the practice (for 10 + years) at my house (with four children) is this — Everyone picks _one_ kind of sock. It must be a different style (tall or short) or brand (red or yellow or green toed) or color (husband’s are black) from the kind of socks others in the house pick. Everyone is buys a dozen pairs of their kind of sock every Jan. ALL old socks are then thrown away (or given to the local preschool, at the teacher’s request, to make puppets.) If a sock is found lacking (holes, stains, etc.) during the year, it is thrown away, as there are plenty of other that match it. This way everyone knows exactly who left socks in the dryer/bathroom/living room floor. If a child (over 8) can’t keep up with his/her socks, he/she may replace them with their own money, or wait until Jan.
A de-slobbing camp!!! YES! Please!
My deposit’s in the mail!
In reply to the shop-a-phobic who posted above, you are not the only one! This exact issue causes me to resist decluttering and the container concept for some items.
Am I the only Slob owner of an overflowing bag of threadbare and/or holey socks that she’s saving to use for hypothetical special cleaning projects “one of these days”?
As for lists, recently I gathered up candles that I had received as gifts, then promptly stashed away. I don’t trust my absent-minded self to use candles except during a power outage, and during those I prefer unscented candles. My hubby dislikes all scented candles. Pondering what to do with the stash, mostly from Yankee Candle, I wondered about re-gifting them. However, though I know I’ve made lists at various times of who gave me what, I don’t know where any of those lists are or if I’ve thrown them all out. . . Hence, I couldn’t re-gift any of the candles without risking a social blunder. . . off to the Salvation Army they went.
You are not alone. And the ‘saving it to use it up as a throw-away-special-cleaning-rag’ baskets in my house are overflowing. I’ve gotten better about using them up on little things (bathroom and greasy kitchen projects where they are a one-swipe use and not going to be laundered.) But my frugality makes it hard for me to throw away something I could, in theory, use again. Someday.
As for the regifts, I (used to) have a special box or drawer set aside for gifts for regifting. Instead of a list that could get lost, I used a post-it note with the info on it, example, ‘red candle from Jane Doe, Staff X-mas party, 2010’ and placed it directly on the item in the box. That way I knew who it was from, when and who else may remember my receiving the gift at the same party so I could avoid regifting it to them as well if they were anti-regifting, and if the note didn’t stick, the basic description ‘red candle, Christmas’ would jog my memory and I could decide at that point of finding it again if I wanted to bother trying to relabel it or just donate it. Hope that idea helps.
Okay, I totally agree on the lists. For the toddler years, I used to make the kid a picture grocery list with staples (milk, bread, eggs, etc.) He loved playing with it while I shopped.
By the time he was about 4 or 5, I had stopped with his lists, the kid distracted himself. So every time, I would make my grocery list, put it on my wallet, but under my keys and phone, all of which is conveniently placed right by the front door. After collected the kid and my stuff, we’d head to the store. And every single time, I’m standing in the first aisle of the store with kid, wallet, keys and phone, but no list. The kid’s memory is better than mine and starts going “don’t forget eggs. don’t forget juice.” And I’m blindly picking up the things the kid remembers from my list…until almost inevitably the child gets to “ice cream sandwiches” which I know never made it to either the picture list or the real list.
He’s 13 now and he’s in charge of the grocery list. It’s still too much for my scatterbrain to handle. And yes, he still thinks ice cream sandwiches are a staple.
I had many lists going at once; always leaving them behind and a friend told me about the phone app “anylist”. You can create any kind of list you want – to do lists, grocery list, list of items I need to return etc. The best thing is that you can share your list with family members. So when my husband says, “next time you are at the store could you get ___________.” I ask him to add it to the anylist grocery list. In theory, when he is stopping by the store, he can get what is on our family list. Having all my lists on my phone eliminates all those little pieces of paper.