This picture above is a suburban mystery and probably contributes to urban legends as well as bad horror film scripts. Calling all detectives.
Scene of the crime:
- Apartment laundry room, fifth floor
- This started a year ago when I moved into this building and has occurred randomly whenever I do laundry, but most recently 02/25/06 at 8:00 A.M.
- ME! (not my husband)
- (My husband?)
- The washing machine
- Stupidity and old age
- Tenants with a fetish
- Other
- See picture above
- Husband is playing a trick on me. This theory was recently disbanded since husband is currently in Korea. Besides he does not have the personality to find this funny.
- Washing machine plumbing is swallowing a single sock. This theory is questionable, because why is it only MY socks? Why doesn't the plumbing eventually regurgitate its diet of cotton blend fabrics? Why doesn't the machine plumbing suck up delicate panties?
- I am accidentally washing only one sock and the other is still under the bed. Yeah, right, like I am this old and this stupid! I can actually get down on my knees and crawl (thanks to Xman) and have checked every nook and cranny.
- There is a tenant in the apartment complex with a sock fetish. This could be a valid theory, but I haven't heard anyone else complain about missing socks and I hardly think my socks have an unique style that appeals to a fetish...I mean look at the picture above!
- Other: I need your help here readers! Any OTHER theories?
Hi Tabor
ReplyDeleteI vote for number 3. That could easily happen to me!
If it fell under the bed it would just have to lay there until I got a new rug.
uvkbcfThat was so funny.
My theory: Metamorphosis.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens is your sock get stuck up around the rim inside the tub. Then the next launderer gets it in her laundry, dries it, sees no mate, and THROWS IT AWAY. Which is what you probably are going to have to do, unless you put up sign and ask people to put stray socks in a bucket so everybody can get their own back.
ReplyDeleteIt happens to me from time to time. Once I found a stray sock (I like this expression!) stuck on the wall of the dryer, another time I found one left beside the washing machine. And there are still one sock waiting for its pair to appear. Life is full of mysteries.;-)
ReplyDeletei do not have stray sock problems, but i am a very accomplished sock hunter and rounder-up-er. they tend to hide in the dryer, although they also have a nasty habit of hiding in the washer (their second favorite habitat). how do you find the little beasties? well, climbing into the laundry appliances in search of them helps ... although i recommend waiting until their cycle has finished, first.
ReplyDeleteGrrlScientist
I used to be so good about the socks, but now I'm just like you - left with many strays. The irony is that when we lived in an apartment, I never lost a single sock. But after we moved into our own place the socks started to wander off. Perhaps it is a joke my husband is trying to play on me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mind-meld, gang. Mildred, I have checked everywhere and cannot find anything, not even dust bunnies in the corners and under the bed. Hoss, good theory, but why don't I get other people's socks in MY wash? Middle-angel, stray does have an intersting connotation, doesn't it. It is as if the sock has a mind of its own! Hedwig, am I too old to crawl into appliances? Manababies, I rarely lost socks in my old house so this is certainly a location issue.
ReplyDeleteOne has to envy hedwig's luck/skill. For me it's usually the under the bed trick or static sticking errant socks to another garment. My solution: All my socks are the same brand, style and color. So, whether I have an even or an odd number of socks, they all match. Boring, I know. But it saves an awful lot of time searching. Not to mention angst over what to wear in the morning.
ReplyDeleteI love this story because it's dear to my heart. About three years ago, I finally set a rule in place in our household. (my daughter does her own laundry so she can choose to follow it or not)
ReplyDeleteWe must fold our socks together into a ball BEFORE tossing them into the laundry basket. Take them off, roll them together then toss them in to be washed.
On laundry day, we don't just bundle all the clothes into the washer at once ... instead, we painstakingly put EACH ITEM in (we've gotten pretty quick at this) and unroll each set of socks as we go. Now we know we've got all the SETS in there.
Same practice for the dryer ... and for removing the clothes and folding them.
Now if there's a sock missing, we know it's in the dryer or stuck inside a pants' leg! :)