Tuesday, January 19, 2010

#18 One of a Kind


#18-At just past the halfway point of this list of 30 Things in 30 Days  and feeling like you all are going to get sick of reading this stuff and wonder when I'm going to get back to just being me I'm reduced to talking about socks and how this series of posts really is me being me.  I'm kind of bothered by this, but then kind of not, because I must admit I do keep my label maker plugged in (to a power strip in the off position of course, I do have those damn polar bears and their shrinking ice cap to think about) so I'm ready to slap a sticker on something at a moments notice, it's true that I like making the grocery list better than doing the shopping and I have made a science out of folding fitted sheets so well you'd think they were pillowcases.  Sick.  I know.  What can I say?  I'm nuts, but I digress.

Socks.  If they make you crazy, or if matching them up takes forever, or if you have such a huge pile of mismatches that you have pain about the sock loss in your life, then start buying all one kind for your people.  If someone in your life wears white tube socks but has 4 different styles and 6 of each kind and you can never find the correct ones to go together...donate the best matches and start over with all one kind of sock.  Buy extra of the same type and stash them in the laundry room or the top of the closet so you can add in new socks to the rotation occasionally without having to go on a quest searching for the same style again. 

This works for little people too...provided you can sell them on the idea that white socks go with everything, which is not always possible.  In this case, and if the socks in your life don't make you nuts, move on to some other area of chaos that needs your attention like sippy cups of 4 different styles which should be narrowed down to one style where every lid matches every plug which fits on every base so you don't have to search through a huge pile of molded plastic covered with cartoon characters every time someone cries out for juice...again, I digress, sorry.  Back to socks.  We have three sizes of little socks in our house, but each size is all one style.  It's easy to match them up, losing one doesn't necessarily render an entire pair unusable, and I don't have to check sizes so carefully when putting them in dresser drawers.  We know which style fits which kid so there is very little confusion about whose socks are whose.

My point.  Here is another area of your life where you are forced to deal with multiples of something on a daily basis.  Limiting your choices a bit, may make your life simpler and give you back just a few of those minutes we're all looking for.


1 comment:

  1. Julie Cloninger La ValleyJanuary 19, 2010 at 4:12 PM

    I'm glad you are only applying this to socks and not to underwear as well. I dated a guy after college who was one of 8 kids (two sets of twins included in the total number). There were six boys and two girls. At the top of the stairway sat two laundry baskets, one for clean underwear and one for clean socks. They were shared by all of the menfolk in the house communally!

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