Sock Explosion

How many pairs of socks can a person own? It appears like too many! Ever since I stopped buying cotton socks, no sock of mine has ever worn out. For a while, I was losing them to the Very Hungry Labrador, but that's over now. No Christmas holiday goes past without socks given and received. And hardly any trip to Costco goes by without a pass through the sock display. And socks are the easy, likely-to-fit, easy premium to be stashed in a goody bag at any sporting event. And they just keep piling up!

So I Marie Kondo'd them. I found them stashed in three places in my room, plus I finished all the laundry to be sure I had them all. First, I got rid of those with no spark of joy - that was a whole grocery bag full. Then, I sorted what was left: running socks, hiking socks, thick wool winter socks, cool short and thin summer socks, dress socks.... I weeded them down further within categories - I don't need 10 pair of hiking socks! But I do need socks to match each pair of running or walking shoes, with different color stories each. With what is left, it seems like a whole lot. Three dozen, plus compression socks and huge non-skid welcome-home-from-the-hospital socks, and Christmas socks (but only 3 pair of Christmas socks, not 5) and Thanksgiving socks! But I freed up more space in my dresser drawers.