Decluttering the Sock Drawer
Take out all of the socks from the drawer or container. Removing all of the socks will help you sort through all of them easily, and you can clean out the drawer before putting them back in. Use a paper towel to wipe down the drawer once the socks are removed to get rid of any dirt or unnecessary items. If your socks aren’t in a drawer, take them out of whatever container they’re in and clean the container, either with a vacuum or paper towel. Dampen the paper towel with water or a proper cleaner if desired.
Group together all the socks that don’t have a match. Take the time to pair up your socks, grouping them with their designated match. As you're pairing them, place all the socks that don’t have a match in a pile and see if any of the socks within the pile match once you’re all done. Socks that don’t have a match can be discarded, used as rags, or made into a craft (like hand puppets).
Throw away any socks that have holes or stains. Socks that are worn out, have giant holes, are dirty, or are super stretched out should be discarded. If you have a lot of socks, go through and pick out ones that are fading or beginning to grow holes as well. If the socks have bleach stains on them or are clean but have holes, consider using them as cleaning rags.
Give away socks that you don’t wear to Goodwill. Socks that don’t fit you well, that you don’t like very much, or that you haven’t worn in the past 6 months should be donated somewhere that accepts and recycles textile donations. Goodwill used to throw away donated socks, but now they work to accept these donations and recycle them into new products. You should only keep the socks that you need on a daily basis or you enjoy wearing in your free time. An exception to this might be holiday-themed socks that you enjoy but only wear during a certain time each year.
Arranging the Socks
Fold the socks to prevent them from getting stretched out. While it’s common for people to roll their socks into a ball, this stretches out the elastic. Instead, place a sock on top of its match and fold the stack in half once, and then in half again if the socks are longer. This creates an aesthetically-pleasing look in your drawer and keeps your socks from getting damaged. Depending on their length, you may need to fold the socks more than twice (or less, for low-cut socks) so that they’re the same folded size as the rest. Aim to create a simple rectangle when the socks are folded.
Sort your socks to separate all of the different colors. Grouping the similarly colored socks together will make it easy to find which ones you're looking for. Gather all of the white socks, dark-colored socks, and multi-colored socks into separate groups so that they're ready to go into a drawer. If you have lots of multi-colored socks, you can separate those by color as well, such as all the blues, yellows, greens, or patterned socks.
Organize your socks by use to easily pick out the ones you need. If you wear different socks for different occasions, separate them into these different categories. You might have one pile of socks that you wear to school, another pile that are for the winter, and another pile that have different patterns on them for holidays. Determine which groupings would be best for you and start sorting. Group all of the socks you wear daily at the front of your drawer and the socks that you wear more infrequently towards the back. One grouping could be your gym socks while another grouping is work socks.
Arrange your socks depending on how many you have. If you have lots of socks, you might consider stacking them on top of one another so that they all fit. If you'd like to be able to see all of your socks at once, lay them on their sides so you can easily pick out which ones you want. Stack similar socks on top of one another, such as all your white socks or patterned socks.
Place your socks in rows to fit in small drawers. If you have a small drawer and your socks easily fill it, you can just start placing your folded socks directly into the drawer in neat rows. Set them in the drawer so that the edge of the fold is shown, and place them in the drawer according to their grouping. Placing socks directly into the drawer works well if you don’t have lots of different kinds.
Use baskets or dividers to keep your socks easily separated. You can purchase baskets or dividers that will fit in your drawer at stores or online, or you can make your own. Place groupings of socks in their own basket, or place individual pairs of folded socks in each section of a divider. You can make your own basket for a drawer using a shoe box. Using a basket, box, or divider might be best if you have lots of different kinds of socks, or if you’re using a large drawer with other items besides socks in it.
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