Takin' Responsibility

My nemesis is socks. Truly. They are left on the ground, stuffed into couches, kicked under beds, and consequently partner-less once laundry is done.

To date, I have used several methods to deal with the sock issue:

• Yelling: not very effective. And Doug doesn't appreciate it.
• Garment bags: Argh. The socks that were unmatched (I folded all of them as they came out of the dryer at one time) were stuffed into a garment bag hanging in the laundry room. When it was full, I emptied it and matched anything that went together.
• Baskets: Slightly more effective. The kids each have a basket in their own room (my mother had one for the entire household in the hallway, so this is strange to me), and there is one in the kitchen - go figure. There is also a basket just for socks near the master bed, so that Doug can toss any socks he takes off in the middle of the night into the basket when he steps on said socks in the morning. Finally, there is a sock basket for all socks as they come out of the dryer. This is the black hole of socks.

Now that my kids are old enough to be working for their laundry, and are also contributing to a bunch of unmatched socks, it is time for another strategy.

This one also has to do with baskets. Instead of one basket at the end of the cycle, I have one for each kid.

Snagged these at Lowe's for $4.99 each; originally over $12!

One of these days...there will be cute tags. For now, these'll do.

All laundry that belongs to said kid goes into his or her basket. It is the child's responsibility to match any unmatched socks (or leave it in their basket for the next go-around) and fold anything that is not folded. Ideally, I should just toss everything in there and everyone should fold their own stuff. I'm working on my control issues so that can happen. Right now, though, I will probably continue to fold everything myself - and match what socks I can.

Oh, and they do have to put their own stuff away. Much easier for them to find their stuff. The basket lives in the laundry room, though. What do you want to bet this becomes my newest fight? Ah well, better to track down five baskets than dozens of socks...I'll let you know how that goes.