Where does the second sock go? Why do socks get lost and what to do?! Modern washing machines do not eat socks

Now let's talk about serious things. Yes, yes, because the regular, but always sudden disappearance of socks is one of the main causes of stress among city residents. And even the interest in the murder of Laura Palmer does not compare with the interest in this mystery: where do they disappear?

The Moscow 24 portal tried to understand the main reasons for the year-round migration of socks and decide what to do about it.

Who is guilty

Probably each of us has our own fantastic story about the disappearance of a sock (or even an entire pair). Having collected many years of experience, we will analyze the most realistic versions of the loss and possible location.

Laundry basket

Let's start with the simpler option. Check the bottom of the laundry basket often. Very often, it is there that small (and sometimes not so small - even T-shirts) items of clothing disappear forever. The risk of falling into this category is especially high for those who, due to busyness (or ordinary laziness), do laundry less than two or three times a week and constantly accumulate piles of laundry until day X.

Cats/dogs/like them

Those who have lived with pets for many years know very well that for cats and dogs, anything that doesn’t sit well automatically becomes a toy. So, once again leaving your socks in a not entirely legal place, don’t be surprised if you manage to find a second sock for your favorite pair only after three years. Under the baseboard. When moving.

Drawer in the closet

Another “eater” of socks is rightfully considered the drawer in the closet, where you, in fact, store your sock collection. And God forbid, if you don’t keep it in perfect order: when the socks are simply piled up like a mountain, they will periodically fall over the edge of the drawer when opening/closing. I mean from the side of the wall.

Bags

Something that people who travel often come across. And we are talking about the dacha as well. If at some point you realize that you have significantly fewer socks, and some of the “survivors” are still without a pair, just check the bags with which you usually go on a trip. Perhaps this is where the missing specimens are trying to sink into oblivion.

Washed laundry

And they can hide there too. Take a closer look at the duvet covers and pillowcases after washing and drying: perhaps this is where the sock ended up after the “Spin” mode.

Washing machine

The most popular and insidious option. Everything is simple here: when washing, small items of clothing at some point may get under the rubber seal of the machine. If all of the above points in your search did not help, try checking the “secret hiding place” under the rim of the washing machine. Just in a fit of passion, remember: not a single sock is worth the subsequent repair of household appliances - be careful.

Alternative extinction theories

Usually desperate citizens end up focusing on them. What is meant? Wonderful romance: brownies, aliens, interdimensional portals that suddenly opened in the apartment... So you always have a choice of whose theory to accept (just check our more realistic assumptions first - you see, the aliens won’t be useful either).

What to do

Believe it or not, there are methods to combat this worldwide sock uprising. Boring, but they work:

– don’t be lazy to store your socks in one place and preferably in order. A not thrown sock is not a lost sock;

– if your washing machine really eats things, wash your socks in a special mesh bag;

– do not fill the laundry basket to capacity, wash more often;

– the simplest advice: buy a year’s worth of socks for every day. And you will be happy.

Why is the number of socks taken out of the washing machine almost always an odd number, and why does spending a lot of time sorting socks into pairs end up with a pile of “singles”? Where do the latter go? This question is asked by many people around the world.

The mysterious disappearance of socks has already given rise to a lot of myths. If you believe them, then:

• socks are stolen by an invisible animal that lives in every apartment - the gypsy sock eater. If he does not have time to finish one sock from a pair, he gnaws holes in it;


• washing machines feed on socks, thus charging for their work;


• brownies steal socks;


• sock manufacturers have concluded a secret worldwide agreement and, in order to increase demand for their products, are making some socks water-soluble;


• In the apartment there is a portal to a parallel Universe inhabited by socks.

There are a lot of such fantastic explanations. This makes it possible to treat the problem of lonely socks with humor, but does not help solve the problem. But what is really happening?

Where does the second sock go?

Washing machines may actually be the culprit behind the disappearance of socks.. There is a small gap between the drum and the casing, thanks to which the drum can rotate easily. And, if the machine is running at full load (or even overload), large and heavy things can “squeeze” small things into the gap, and when the water is drained, the socks flow down the drain along with soap suds. The frequency of such incidents depends on the machine model and load level.

In addition, thin socks can get under the rubber seal of the machine hatch. And sometimes they end up forgotten in the drum of the machine - during the spin cycle, they can get hidden in the far corners and go unnoticed when unloading things. Sooner or later, hide-and-seek socks find themselves in such socks, “appearing in the machine out of nowhere,” and in countries where self-service laundromats are common, they part with their owners forever.

But why do only socks disappear when washed? In fact, they are not the only ones. Handkerchiefs, children’s panties, and other “small things” can “leak away” or get lost in the far corners of the machine. It’s just that tracking the loss of a sock from a pack is much more difficult than the loss of one sock from a pair - the remaining orphaned sock will too clearly hint that something is missing from the clothes dryer.

Socks can also disappear without a trace in the bowels of a vacuum cleaner., especially if one of the inhabitants of the apartment has a habit of taking off their socks and scattering them around the apartment. If there is also, for example, a playful cat in the apartment, the situation gets worse. In this case, socks may end up under cabinets, under the radiator, in the far corner under the bed and other unpredictable places. They can be found during cleaning - or they can be “swallowed” by a vacuum cleaner. And this is another common reason for the loneliness of leftover socks.

How to prevent socks from disappearing in the machine: safe washing

If socks are loaded into the washing machine in pairs and unloaded singly, it is quite easy to deal with this scourge. Enough buy a laundry bag– closed bags made of mesh fabric are specially designed for loading small items “in bulk” into the drum, and the items are washed no worse. But the probability of “leakage” or “hiding” is zero: socks are loaded in bulk and taken out in bulk, in the same completeness.

Washing and storing socks in pairs: a method for neat people

In hardware stores or online stores you can purchase a set of small and lightweight sock clips, greatly facilitating sorting. Before washing, the socks are fastened together in pairs, placed in the drum of the washing machine along with a clothespin, after which, also in pairs, they are hung on the dryer using hooks. You can also put socks in a closet drawer with a clothespin.

If household members are disciplined enough to take off dirty socks, immediately pin them together and put them in the laundry bin, this allows you to completely get rid of the tedious sorting of socks: they will always be in pairs, without being separated for a moment.

Instead of a pair of socks - a large team: a method for the lazy and thrifty

You can rid yourself of the problem of mismatched socks by eliminating the concept of a “pair of socks” as a class from everyday life. For this you need buy socks in small wholesale, making sure that they are all strictly the same. This is especially effective for men's socks.

Many sock manufacturers offer “cases” of a large number of identical pairs, but you can simply buy 10-20 pairs of socks of the same model in the store. And before you start using them, just throw away all your old socks of the same color. If there are several men in the family with different foot sizes, you can buy batches of socks that differ from each other for them (for example, a pack of black and a pack of gray).

In this case, you don’t have to think about sorting socks into pairs at all - for wearing, it’s enough to take two pieces from a pile of identical socks; for washing, just load everything you have into the machine. The evenness or oddness of the socks in the pile in this case is not of fundamental importance. This, by the way, allows you to throw away your used socks not in pairs, but individually. When the number of socks is reduced to a critical level, the worn socks are thrown away and a new batch is loaded in their place.

Women's socks are usually more varied in colors and styles - but they can also be bought in small quantities of 2-3 pairs.

Two different socks - a pair: a method for the extravagant

Sock manufacturers have recently increasingly offered customers sets of fundamentally mismatched socks. This applies mainly to women's and children's socks of bright colors, which are sold not in pairs, but in sets of an odd number of socks of different but compatible colors. For example, a three-piece could include three socks with the same geometric pattern, but one of them will be red and white, the second will be red and black, and the third will be black and white. And any two will make a harmonious pair.

Wearing different but matching socks- an easy way to add a hooligan touch to your image. And for this it is not at all necessary to buy special cases; when buying socks, you can buy several pairs with the same pattern in different colors, or several pairs of plain socks in contrasting colors - and then combine them depending on your mood.

The automatic washing machine has become one of the best inventions of mankind. She completely freed the fair sex from the need to rub the delicate skin of their fingers until they bled in an attempt to give their linen its former brightness and cleanliness.

The same invention caused the loss of favorite things. And if, as a rule, small items in the form of handkerchiefs and socks disappear in household washing machines, even towels can disappear without a trace in industrial appliances.

However, this fact is not particularly surprising. You just need to look inside this household appliance. Opening the door of the washing machine and looking at the sparkling drum, associations immediately arise with a shark’s mouth. It’s no wonder that men’s socks disappear in it without a trace, disheartening their owners.

In order not to rack your brains in vain over the explanation of this phenomenon, you need to figure out where socks disappear from washing machines, and how this problem can be solved?

Owners of washing machines have noticed a strange trend indicating that their indispensable assistants in everyday life prefer men's socks.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that the washing machine is feminine, and, apparently, nothing human is alien to it.

And now we can begin to consider the versions of what is happening put forward by the owners of this item of clothing themselves.

1. Some laundry detergents help dissolve socks in water. Moreover, as many years of practice have shown, predominantly synthetic and semi-synthetic items of men's clothing tend to disappear. While products made from cotton and wool always return to their owner.
2. A design error made by the manufacturer of this type of household appliance. There is a hypothesis that the drum, located behind a closed machine door, can not only wash, but also act as a teleportation camera, transferring socks to another time dimension.
3. The washing machine literally digests the socks, discharging the waste down the drain. This is a kind of payment for facilitating the work of housewives.
4. The disappearance of socks is associated with a secret agreement concluded between their manufacturers in order to increase demand for their products. They make one sock out of a pair water-soluble.

Unfortunately, none of these hypotheses turns out to be true. If washing powders could dissolve synthetic fabrics, most things would disappear.

The remaining versions, although they belong to the category of mysticism, shed at least some light on the greatest secret of humanity. So where can the socks go?

Real reasons

Luckily, washing machines don't absorb or digest socks. They don't feed on them at all. And socks don’t disappear without a trace. If at the end of the wash one sock is removed from the machine, then the second one is hidden somewhere inside. But this is only if the outcome of the case is successful.

In fact, there is a real explanation for where socks go in washing machines, and it is more down-to-earth.

1. Washing machines are really to blame for the disappearance of socks. Or rather, it’s not even them who are to blame, but the companies that produce them. In order for the drum to rotate freely, a small gap is left between it and the housing casing. When the machine is fully loaded, heavy things can literally squeeze out small things. As a result, when water is drained, it either flows into the sewer or clogs the drain hose, causing a worldwide flood in the apartment.
2. Very thin socks can get caught between the drum seal or stick to it during the spin cycle. In this case, they will, sooner or later, be discovered. Unfortunately, a sock discovered at the wrong time can ruin the laundry placed in the washing machine during the next wash. True only if he is not white.

Ways to combat extinction

Socks are a paired item of clothing, so they are loaded into the washing machine exclusively in pairs. Unless, of course, one sock from the pair got lost on the way to the washing machine. It’s very disappointing to load two pairs into it and then take out one and a half.

There are several proven ways to combat the loss of things during washing. First of all, these include laundry bags, which are made of mesh fabric and are used for washing small items. Such bags are closed, and therefore the probability of losing a sock again is close to zero, and the socks cannot go anywhere.

While the search for bags is underway, socks can be placed in the car, having previously been tied together. As a last resort, they can be stuffed into the pockets of trousers or shirts. However, the quality of washing in this case may leave much to be desired.

The most reliable way is hand washing. By washing your socks by hand, you can experience incredible pleasure watching them regain their former freshness.

Nadezhda Dazless
I just have to write about this because it's brilliant. And just. Simply brilliant. Anyone who has ever worn socks knows: socks are magical objects, no less than relatives of the famous magician Houdini. Even in a completely closed system they tend to disappear. Moreover, they disappear one by one.

I put them on in the morning, go to work, don’t take them off in public places, throw them in the wash in the evening, take them out, hang them on the balcony, put them on the shelves. Please note that there is no possibility for the socks to fall off and disappear at any stage. And yet - this is so. I even started a separate bag for single socks, where they lie and wait for their pair. It happens that a couple comes from another wash. The couple split up in the basket.

However, half of the package is occupied by widower socks; after a full cycle (everything dirty was washed and became clean), their other half never showed up. If you type in Google the phrase “Why do socks disappear?” - the result of more than three million requests. Some individuals, without hesitation, call the phenomenon anomalous and write it off as bullshit. Writer Terry Prattchet (love, love, love) came up with a mechanical beast that feeds on single socks.

There are a lot of theories: the universe is expanding, and therefore free space appears in it, it is this space that is occupied by the missing socks, these are aliens joking, testing people's reactions, these are gaps in time, socks fall there, they are sucked in, there is even a theory of resistentialism - inanimate objects nourish disgust for people, that’s why they disappear. By the way, physicists do not leave this phenomenon alone. They say Robert Matthews, the author of the book "25 Great Discoveries", justified the process of losing socks using the theory of probability, they say, the more pairs you have, the more likely you are to end up with single socks, but still did not explain where the hell they go .

While the best minds on the planet are struggling with this riddle, ordinary people are looking for solutions. One of my friends always took off her socks, put one in the other and washed them together, another organized a separate basket for socks and washed them in a rag bag, the third bought all the socks of the same color, black, and thus solved the problem. But I don’t like black socks, the fibers of the fabric get caught under the nails, you take them off and it’s like you haven’t washed your feet, and if you have to do it at home, it’s a shame, you won’t have to explain it to everyone.

Recently, on the Internet, I found people who are creatively approaching the problem of sock loss. The site is called littlemissmatched. There’s a lot of stuff there, but that’s what doesn’t interest us; what interests us is the socks section, and not even the section itself, but the idea behind it. They produce socks that are initially not identical, but match each other in design, theme, texture, and in three pieces. Or even a whole jar, with similar but different single socks.

Here! If one is lost, don’t worry, there are two or more. Fun, cute and unusual. Combine and wear, and forget about worries about missing ones. Exactly what I needed for nocturnal happiness. And it's that simple. I definitely stole the idea. And when I buy socks, I buy similar pairs, mix them up and wear them. Down with sock dominance, give sock freedom! In the meantime, let scientists look for socks in parallel universes.