Louisiana Residents Say the Dryer Is Eating Their Socks Too

Where do our socks go? If you are the person who does the laundry in your home then you must wonder constantly, "Where are all the socks going"?

I can only imagine if there are five of you in a typical household then trying to track down all those socks could have you close to wanting to run away from home.

Ladies and gents, I can't be the only person this happens to. Why does it always seem that when I put my socks in with a load of towels by the time I take everything out of the dryer to fold the items some socks are just not there? Where in the world do the socks go?

Now, let me be totally upfront! I do not enjoy folding laundry! I am the worst at it. I take out stuff and put it right on the top of the dryer. (Yes, I am that procrastinator and loser). But, just because I do that doesn't mean there isn't an eternal mystery going on here. Where the heck is the match that pair of socks?

I started to look into what happens with our socks. I stumbled upon an article by "USA Today" that talks about what happens to our socks. They make some excellent points.

Static Cling 

One great point is that static electricity could be "stealing" my socks. According to the article static cling can make socks stick to things like the inside of your fitted bed sheets or pants. Ha! I never even thought to look there.

It doesn't matter if you use dryer sheets either as sometimes one item of clothing can cling to another. Hmmmm, I'll need to go look through all the sheets that I actually folded and the pants already hung in the closet.

Behind the Dryer

I never think about the space behind the dryer, but it is there because of the giant dryer hose attached to the dryer. According to thespruce, often items can fall on the ground and get kicked under the dryer.

If you collect folded or unfolded laundry on the top of the dryer it's not so hard to fathom that socks can fall behind the dryer when you are taking a load out of the dryer. No wonder I can't find my socks. Now I'm going to have to get back there to look.

Hole in the Washing Machine

This is the real deal!!! This guy, Julian, posted a video on YouTube about what he finally thought about in reference to his washing machine! There is a hole in this man's washing machine!

How much do you want to bet that there is a hole in each of our washing machines? I am totally going to see if I can get into my washing machine. I bet my socks and some of my hosiery are in there!

Socks Can Slip Between the Washer and the Dryer

This one is so obvious, but I have to admit that I NEVER look there. It's not like it's that hard to do. I can push the washer aside a bit and look there.

According to the website feetures.com scientists actually looked into this and found that the average person in an average family will lose "will lose 15 socks per person per year." No wonder I can't find my socks! They are disappearing!

Make Sure the Lint Trap Is Fully In Place & Not Full

I always thought this was a big myth or joke, but apparently, you can lose a sock in the dryer because it can slip between the areas where your lint trap goes according to lakeappliancerepair.com.

Not only can small socks get stuck in there having too much lint is a fire hazard. You need to clean the dryer's lint filter each time you use the dryer.

They Fell When You Were Carrying Them to the Washing Machine

Okay, I hate to admit it, but this is so obvious I didn't even want to put this one as part of the list, but I bet this happens all the time.

I bet they fall behind furniture. I bet my dog Gracie has a secret collection of my socks somewhere in my house just waiting for me to discover it. Always look the way you came. I do take laundry from the bathroom to the laundry room so I could be losing my socks that way.

Solutions?

Now that we have explored all of the places that socks can go what can we do to prevent them from going missing?

Feetures.com has several good ideas one of which is to buy some sock clips so that your socks don't get separated in the wash.

If you don't want to spend any money, then you can use safety pins instead of sock clips. That sounds like an inexpensive way to do it.

They also recommend putting all your socks in a mesh laundry bag. This sounds like an easy and affordable thing to do. It sounds better than the safety pins because that seems like a lot of trouble. You can have everyone in your family put their socks in the same bag and then throw them in the laundry at the same time.