Socks are more than just a part of your undergarments. They keep your feet nice and cozy on cold days. The perfect printed socks can appear trendy and fashionable in any setting, whereas a plainly-colored pair helps maintain a neater and more formal look as you remain comfortably seated with your legs crossed in the office or classroom.
In any case, socks play a more important role in our lives than we often realize, and as anyone who often retrieves an odd number of socks from the laundry can attest, they shouldn’t be taken for granted.
4 helpful tips for maintaining your socks
Keeping your socks in order is a basic necessity and can be regarded as the basis of living life as a productive, self-sufficient adult. That is to say that if your impulse is to keep buying new pairs of socks if you think the ones that you have are no longer usable, that’s your prerogative.
But given how low maintenance socks can be and the level of satisfaction you get knowing that you have a freshly laundered pair for tomorrow, it might help to know a few handy tips that can help you keep your socks nice and clean.
1) Handle them gently
As the best socks are the ones that prioritize your comfort above anything else, it might help to return the favor when they’re the ones that need care.
Where possible, wash your socks by hand and use a less aggressive soap or detergent in the process. Make sure to start with water that is not quite cold but lukewarm at most before leaving them to soak. As the water cools, the detergent will be absorbed much better and the wash will go much quicker. Do not, however, soak them in scalding hot water, as that can damage the fabric.
When rinsing your plain or printed pairs, do not wring the socks too tightly and make sure to dry them at a moderate temperature, like in a sunlit room. Wind-drying usually gets the best results.
2) Sort them for your own ease
As you’ve already experienced in some way or another, not getting an even number of socks is less than ideal. So be sure to wash them in pairs and try to wash as little at a time as is suitable for your needs.
Sorting your socks by color is optional. For your own satisfaction, you can perhaps arrange them by tones and shades as you deem necessary. Since they’re mostly washed at mild temperatures, colored or printed socks aren’t usually at risk of decolorizing unless you use something like bleach which, again, is something best avoided.
3) Wash as regularly as possible
Too many socks can be a bit tedious and time-consuming to wash at once but cleaning a pair each day is not something everyone has the time for. If the pile of dirty pairs becomes too big, leaving some to wash later is not a great idea as the smell from old, sweat-riddled socks can really fill up a room and empty a stomach. Plus they might attract molds.
Ideally, it’s best to wear a single pair each day, take it off once you don’t need them, and make sure that it is washed at least once or twice a week. That way your workload is lessened, and your life becomes much easier with a little extra planning.
4) Know when it’s time to say goodbye
Socks aren’t immortal, but people often feel reluctant to throw them away because you really like the print or if, for some reason, they are their “lucky” pair of socks. Nonetheless, once your socks become too worn out to be worn comfortably, they’re just a waste of time and space that you should be giving to your usable pairs.
Therefore, dispose of irreparably torn or roughed up socks, buy new ones, and keep them with greater care.
Conclusion
Washing your socks isn’t rocket science, and getting it done right can give you the determination to keep everything else in order. So keep these tips in mind when washing your printed or plain socks.
