Sock Saver

Have you ever noticed that the Sock Monster particularly enjoys baby socks? (Almost as much as he loves his wings)

Do you have a front loader washing machine? Do you hate losing your baby socks only to find them tucked in your favorite pair of jeans or folded into your sheets? Do you wish you could have all your baby's socks in one place so they are easy to match and put away?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then I have a solution for you.

(Cue the infomercial music; insert the bad acting and overly dramatic reenactments of finding socks in the weirdest places.)

My sister-in-law gave me this advice long before I had a baby, and I think it's been a life saver. Or at least a sock saver. If you go to the laundry section of your local store, you'll find a small mesh bag called a garment bag, or a lingerie bag. If you are LDS and ever attended girls camp, you may have had to use these as a place to hang  dry and store your dishes.

Anyway, buy this bag. Take it home and put it in your hamper, tack it on the wall, keep it in the sock drawer. Whatever. When your child takes off dirty socks, throw them in the bag. Or, when you sort laundry, pull the dirty socks aside and put them in the bag before running the washing machine.

Make sure you zip the bag. I say this from experience. This nifty little trick will get your child's socks clean and keep them all in one place for easy matching and clean up. Hurray! Your prayers are answered!

And as a side note, if you have a front loader, the socks can get trapped in the little space between the machine and the rubber insert around the opening. It pulls away and baby socks are the perfect size to squeeze in there and mold. Gross. So it's a really good idea to pull that rubber part back every once in a while and see if anything is hiding down there.