My mother once suggested that a simple way to deal with sorting socks for a large family was to buy all white socks. This has been the ONLY bad advice I've ever received from her!!!!!! She must have started this after we kids had all moved out and it was just my father's and her own socks left to sort.
Before doing the laundry, we separate the whites from the dark clothes so that we can use bleach and sometimes hot water for the whites.Then, the towels and undershirts are hung up to dry. The socks, washcloths and unmentionables are thrown into the dryer. After about 10-12 days, probably three such baskets of whites need to be sorted and brought to people's rooms.This job is too complicated to give to only young members of the family because they are not astute nor concerned enough to appreciate the subtle nuances of what actually constitutes a match! This becomes a project that may be undertaken in front of the T.V. while watching a movie. It is assigned to an older and a younger member of the family and then the piles are delivered to each person's dresser top.
There has got to be a better way for socks to be sold. The little purple heeled ones are for Miss J. and the gray heeled ones are for the younger boys to share.The three older girls now wear more colored socks and remembering whose pair is whose is both an art and a science.Larry's and mine are the ones with the holes in them. You know how that goes! This pile is already matched. The much bigger pile on the couch is predominately white and is a daunting task. It certainly is a wonderful thing to have a large selection of clean white socks in pairs to put on while getting dressed for the day and it is something to be grateful for.
