# Let’s put this missing sock thing to rest once and for all. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 19, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-s-put-this-missing-sock-thing-to-rest-once-and-for-all/176258 "2003-05-19T19:15:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-s-put-this-missing-sock-thing-to-rest-once-and-for-all/176258/41 "2003-05-22T08:14:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rhubarb \* > \*\* > > Has anyone else noticed that it’s usually the right sock that goes missing? After all, the remaining sock is left. 😃 \*\* I don’t know whether to groan or just slap you up the back of the head **Rhubarb**. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-s-put-this-missing-sock-thing-to-rest-once-and-for-all/176258/42 "2003-05-22T08:25:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zunite \* > \*\*I don’t think anyone has mentioned this… have you checked behind the washer? \*\* I caught a glimpse of what lives behind my washer recently when I had to tighten one of the hoses, and there is no way in hell that I am pulling it out to search for lost socks. Ewwwwwww. 😃 Anyway, I counted the ‘oddies’ in my basket, and there are 63\*. I don’t think 63 socks would fit behind my Hoover. There is DEFINITELY some sort of cosmic conspiracy afoot! \*Yes, that is how many I counted. My kids have given up, and now are making a fashion statement by wearing odd socks…not that they have a choice…it’s either that, or bare feet! ---
**Author:** ![Janx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Janx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janx)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-s-put-this-missing-sock-thing-to-rest-once-and-for-all/176258/43 "2003-05-23T19:41:59Z")
UPDATE: I found the sock! Or perhaps it found ME? Guess where it surfaced: _In my wife’s laundry!_ I kid thee not! I came home yesterday, and there on the line with her stuff was \*one of my gray socks! \* I think Hmmmmm, I went up to my drawer and found the one that stayed behind, took it down and matched them up, its the missing sock all right, or one that is just like it. So I asked my wife where the hell did you get my other sock? She said it must have been in her basket because when she went to hang her stuff it was in the washer, so she just hung it up with all the rest of the stuff! So I told her the saga of the missing sock and how I placed **2** socks on top of my load of darks this weekend. She conceded that she didn’t actually **see** it in her basket, she just **assumed** it was there, otherwise, how did it get into **her** laundry? How indeed!?! I said the aliens from the planet of missing socks were messing with my head. She said something about why cousins shouldn’t marry and all that LSD I was taking back in the ‘80s. Well, wait it couldn’t have been in there already because it would have come out in the load of rags we washed the other day right? And since I actually _stuck my head into the machine to look for my sock_ I know it was not in there! All I can guess is that it got stuck under that cone that agitates during the wash cycle. Who knows. Another of lifes mysteries goes unsolved. As I was dithering my way out to the living room with my newly reunited socks, our son yells down from his room, “Hay, has anyone seen my other tennis shoe?” I think it might be out along the highway some where for a few days. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![sperfur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9adbd/32.png) [@sperfur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sperfur)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-s-put-this-missing-sock-thing-to-rest-once-and-for-all/176258/44 "2003-05-23T20:51:22Z")
I have a system. I _always_ buy two pair of the same sock. That way, I can lose up to two socks and still have a pair (kind of like sock swinging…). One day I was matching up my socks and found _five_ matching green socks! :eek: I still haven’t figured out where that other sock came from. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-s-put-this-missing-sock-thing-to-rest-once-and-for-all/176258/45 "2003-05-23T22:18:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AskNott \* > \*\*One thing’s sure. If you zip your socks into a net “lingerie bag” before washing, you’ll get them all back. \*\* Do you honestly believe a perforated scrap of material can hold off the power of the universe? ---
**Author:** ![Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kombucha_ShroomPerson)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-s-put-this-missing-sock-thing-to-rest-once-and-for-all/176258/46 "2003-05-23T23:32:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RandMcnally \* > \*\*I’ve found a solution to that problem. Threaten the machine. For example, when my television starts to mess up, I hit it. If it starts up again, I remind it what I did last time, then everything is back to normal. \*\* Another solution is rule over your possessions with a fist of iron, and to make regular public examples of faulty appliances. (e.g. smashing up your broken calculator in front of the PC.) This scares the others out of playing silly buggers. And as for the sock thing, I rarely wear matching socks, and it seems that few, if any, of mine have gone missing. So maybe when they vanish, they’re just looking for a different sock to hang out with? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-s-put-this-missing-sock-thing-to-rest-once-and-for-all/176258.md?page=2)