The last couple of weeks Guinevere and I have repeatedly passed by a house on the parkway with one toddler’s pink shoe sitting on the front post of someone’s house. It is still in good shape (despite a couple of storms) but it does look a little forlorn. If YA had lost this shoe as a toddler, I might have re-traced our steps to find it but there are probably several good reasons why the shoe remains all by itself.
It makes me think about the socks that go missing in life. This time of year I spend more time thinking about socks; winter socks are bigger and harder to mis-placed. I mostly wear little no-show socks (if I’m wearing shoes) and I often find one of the missing when I fold up my weekly laundry. I’ve developed a short process when this happens.
As I sort and fold laundry, I tend to shake it out a bit. If a sock is missing, I may unfold, shake and refold any likely suspects who might be holding onto a sock, especially the fitted sheet. If that doesn’t turn up the missing footwear, then I head down to the basement to check the dryer and the washing machine. If I am still single-socked, then I put the lonely sock into a little box that I keep in my closet. Then when its mate shows up, I put them together and replace them in the sock drawer.
Eventually I go through the single sock box and get rid of any inmates who have been there for a long long time. Right now there are four socks in the box and none of them are likely to get paired up again.
How to you deal with lost socks, shoes, gloves? Do you have a process? How long to you keep single items before despairing of finding their mates?
Trail Baboon 