Buying lots of identical pairs of socks massively reduces the amount of time you need to find matching pairs after drying them.
I did this, and it was great at first. Then I needed more socks, so I bought another batch. Then I had a mix of worn socks and brand new socks. They might look the same at first, but if you take a closer look, the older ones are a little lighter in color and the texture isn't the same. I later bought a third batch. So now I have a mix of new, old, and really old socks. It actually takes more effort to match socks now than when I had many different socks.
I see this advice posted all the time, so I guess most people don't care if their socks on each foot are a different level of worn, but it bothers me.
I'm at this point too. I think the next step is to just declare sock bankruptcy again and throw everything out and start over.
In that case you could buy very visibly different socks from all the ones you have every time, eg blue vs white vs black vs beige. That also makes it easy to find matching pairs.
Yeah I just buy about 20 pair at once and throw away or donate all older socks.
I had the same problem as you with different states of wear/color over time. So the last time I bought a whole bag of matching socks, when I first took out each pair I put a matching mark on the inside surface of each sock (like 1 dot, 2 dots, 3 in a row, 3 in a triangle, different color mark, etc). So then I can easily pair them all up correctly after I do the laundry.
I buy the same pairs from Costco. Problem is every year they change the pattern on the bottom. 2 gray bars next year solid next year 3 bars.
Same sock but dammit I have to get the matching bars.
Is it just me or did the Costco socks used to last way longer?
I've never gotten Costco socks, but when I was researching the best pair of socks to get for my dad, everyone was raving over them, comparing them to the Darn Tough brand. If they're not holding up like that anymore, then that's unfortunate because I was really looking forward to trying them out some day.
Buying lots of identical pairs of socks massively reduces the amount of time you need to find matching pairs after drying them.
I did this, and it was great at first. Then I needed more socks, so I bought another batch. Then I had a mix of worn socks and brand new socks. They might look the same at first, but if you take a closer look, the older ones are a little lighter in color and the texture isn't the same. I later bought a third batch. So now I have a mix of new, old, and really old socks. It actually takes more effort to match socks now than when I had many different socks.
I see this advice posted all the time, so I guess most people don't care if their socks on each foot are a different level of worn, but it bothers me.
I'm at this point too. I think the next step is to just declare sock bankruptcy again and throw everything out and start over.
In that case you could buy very visibly different socks from all the ones you have every time, eg blue vs white vs black vs beige. That also makes it easy to find matching pairs.
Yeah I just buy about 20 pair at once and throw away or donate all older socks.
I had the same problem as you with different states of wear/color over time. So the last time I bought a whole bag of matching socks, when I first took out each pair I put a matching mark on the inside surface of each sock (like 1 dot, 2 dots, 3 in a row, 3 in a triangle, different color mark, etc). So then I can easily pair them all up correctly after I do the laundry.
I buy the same pairs from Costco. Problem is every year they change the pattern on the bottom. 2 gray bars next year solid next year 3 bars.
Same sock but dammit I have to get the matching bars.
Is it just me or did the Costco socks used to last way longer?
I've never gotten Costco socks, but when I was researching the best pair of socks to get for my dad, everyone was raving over them, comparing them to the Darn Tough brand. If they're not holding up like that anymore, then that's unfortunate because I was really looking forward to trying them out some day.