The $8 Laundry Hack That Ensures I’ll Never Lose Another Baby Sock Again

When doing laundry, it’s all but guaranteed that at least one sock is going to go missing. You probably know the feeling of getting to the end of a folding session and finding a lone sock (if not more) without its partner, even though you’re certain you put complete pairs into the washing machine. You might even have a collection of singular socks drifting aimlessly at the bottom of a drawer somewhere, waiting for their other halves to return from the dryer in the great beyond. 

There’s likely a practical explanation for why socks go missing so regularly, like a small compartment or a tear within the washer/dryer unit, but it’s arguably more fun to imagine that perhaps lost socks drift into the same alternate dimension as bobby pins and hair ties for some big lost-things party. Whatever the reason, maybe you’re now rocking mismatched pairs in hopes of starting a trend. Maybe you’ve resorted to buying one uniform color to avoid the lone sock phenomenon altogether. 

As a mom of a three-year-old, I’m here to tell you that this problem only gets worse the smaller the sock. Baby socks are absolutely tiny—probably no larger than a fun-size chocolate bar—and they’re even more prone to mysterious disappearances during the wash/dry cycle. Throughout the first few months of my daughter’s life, I lost nearly two or three socks each time I did a load of laundry; and I did a lot of laundry in the newborn stage.

But one day, one of my mom friends let me in on a special hack—and I’m here to let you in on the secret too. Say it with me: small mesh garment bags. Yes, the kind that you might use for lingerie or swimwear. As my friend instructed, you keep the garment bag by your changing table or wherever you swap your baby’s clothes. Each time you change your tot, simply put all the little baby socks inside the garment bag, and then throw the garment bag itself into the laundry. Poof! No more missing socks. 

I’ll admit that I was skeptical at first, but I purchased a set of five mesh bags from Amazon in assorted sizes. Once I started using the garment bags as makeshift baby sock hampers, there was no going back. Not only did I never lose a sock again (really), the hack ensured that all the socks stayed together to make folding a breeze.

As my daughter got bigger and graduated from baby sizes to toddler clothes, I never strayed from the trusted hack, and still use the same mesh bags for her socks today. Another bonus? The mini bags are perfect for getting kids to help with the laundry; I’ll often hand my daughter a bag of clean socks and ask her to match them with their pairs—of which there’s always a perfect amount.

This article originally published on Apartment Therapy. See it there: This $10 Laundry Hack Ensured I’d Never Lose Another Baby Sock Again