I can’t close my sock drawer. What with all the socks shoved in there and all. And I’m plagued by a burning question. Where did they all come from?
It’s not like I buy socks every six months or something. Because I don’t. I live in Texas. I wear flip flops and flats. My preferred form of exercise is Bikram yoga. Which is performed barefoot.
So what with all the socks? I did some digging. Aside from the socks on my feet when this picture was taken,* these are all of my socks:
Now, here’s the funny thing about my socks. I don’t actually like colorful, patterned socks. Which means all of the funky socks were given to me as gifts. And the furry socks? They feel nice on my feet, but I slip and slide on the floor. And upping the potential for wiping out and crashing on a hard floor? Not my idea of smart. Plus, I’m kind of a klutz, so even less smart. The odds of me eating the floor are incredibly high.
To get the party started, I sorted all of them into white:
Those that were widowed:
And those funky, colorful, furry deathtraps socks:
Not sure if you counted, but I’ll save you some time. There were TWENTY-SEVEN full pair of socks shoved in that drawer. Not counting the ones without mates. Wha-what? Who needs that many socks? I’ll tell you who. No one.
I remedied the problem. I kept one pair of knee high socks that are thin enough and tall enough to wear with my just-below-the-knee boots. I kept two thin pair of socks I can wear with ankle boots. The rest I will wear with my tennis shoes or around the house in the winter. All of my other shoes do not require socks.
Writing that all out really tells me that I probably have twice as many as I really actually need, but I’ll keep my eyes on it as I wear them in the coming months.
What about you? How many socks do you have?
*I was wearing running shoes that are never, ever worn to run. I don’t run. But they are comfortable. And I wear them predominantly on soccer fields. To watch my kids play.
Earlier this year I counted up how many pairs of socks I had and it was over 90! I brought that number down to about 75 but need to do some serious sock purging soon!
Holy moly! YOU WIN.
OMG, I too suffer from too many socks. Namely black ones, as I wear work boots to work, and so mens socks work well. I just darned the holes in some the other day, which is silly given I have a stash of at least another 7 pairs waiting in the wings! I prefer the socks with different colours on the toes, so I really do match my black socks – that way I know they’ll feel the same from having equal wear and all that. Anyhow I must have found lots of colour coded socks, and bought surplus to my needs! Then there’s white work out socks (for running), and then countless pairs of tights (footless, stay up etc) which i just moved from front and centre sock drawer to the closet with the coats. I don’t wear the hoisery enough to give it front billing, and to always fight past it to the white or black socks! Now… did you then make sock puppets with the leftovers?
You give me way more credit in the crafty department than I deserve! The socks that are matching sets and in good shape are getting donated. The mismatched or ones that are in bad shape are going to textile recycling.
I have way too many and will have a hard time purging. Summer, winter, holiday, thin, thick, sport, fleece, ragg, hiking, skiing…….
Please dont be offended but… You say you are well off but the stuff you show in pictures does not ever seem to be good quality or good looking. (Except for the car.) Being from a country in northern Europe I often wonder if americans have a totally different taste. There is a common qoutation that says not to keep anything in your home but the things that are either useful or beautiful or preferably both. You could probably afford to do just that. And you are truly worth it! So I am just intrigued. And please dont be offended.
Helena- I’m not offended! It’s a good question. And, I appreciate the fact that you were incredibly polite in the way that you phrased it.
The answer is, well, complicated. But I’ll try to answer as best I can. There are many factors at play here. A lot of stuff we are getting rid of/donating, we acquired when we were newly married, with no money. And we still have all that stuff. So, yes, it is of not great quality. We also had the tendency for many, many years to go into Target (which is a big box, discount store), spend a lot of money and come out with crap. Which we still have. Again, not great quality.
Now, to the bigger issue of what we choose to afford. We have three competing interests with respect to this point. And I won’t give specific dollar amounts because I just won’t. Our three biggest expenditures annually are for retirement savings, health insurance and private school tuition for our children.
We choose to send our children to a private, faith based school with a hefty price tag. If we opted to send our children to public school, paid for with our really expensive property taxes, we’d have a lot more money to spend on expensive clothes or furniture or whatever. (I don’t say this to get into a debate over public vs. private school, because that’s not what this blog is about and I don’t want to engage in such arguments. In fact, I won’t. This is a sensitive subject for a lot of people, but this is part of the answer to your question. This is where a significant percentage of our annual income goes.) I clearly have medical issues, so our medical expenses are higher each year than for a family without these circumstances. According to an article I just looked up on the New York Times, the median household income for the United States as of June 2013 was $52,100. We spend more than that on health insurance/medical expenses and private school tuition each year.
And here is the third biggest expense for our household: we put aside significant retirement savings each year, because we think this is critically important. (This is not referring to US Social Security. These are in 401(k)s and IRAs.) In fact, when we do our retirement planning, we assume we will not actually receive any Social Security benefits even though we pay Social Security taxes. Why? Because we are fiscally conservative in this regard. And that means we choose not to spend that money today.
We also pay federal income taxes, employment taxes (including Social Security taxes), state sales tax and state property tax (there is no state income tax) of about a 30-35% of our gross income. (I’m simply stating a fact here – I also don’t want to get into a debate regarding rates of tax or politics or income inequality or similar. :))
Could we make other choices? Sure. But I don’t think you’re asking why we’ve made these choices, just what the choices are.
We are trying to live by that saying by William Morris, which is the one you are quoting. 🙂 As we eliminate the junky/cheap/we-don’t-like-it stuff from our house we’ll be able to focus on what we do love and find beautiful. And the stuff we’re getting rid of, we’re getting rid of for a reason. Because we don’t love it. And because it’s crap.
And while we could sacrifice our retirement savings or the medical coverage or the private school education for our kids so we could go out and buy expensive stuff, we won’t.
Does that help answer your question? Thank you for saying I’m worth it. I appreciate it. I really, really do. Sorry this was so long!
Kandice, I am so grateful that you understood what I ment, and answered so kindly. And I do understand and respect your choices. For the future I hope that you can find that frugal living enables you choose stuff that are both economical and esthetical. I think http://www.becomingminimalist.com express those thoughts way better than I can do, if you care to read more. Living in a rather different culture I still have had to do some major purging, combined with family upheaval and limited finances, to come to the rather nice looking, easy care life I have today, so I can relate and enjoy following your story. Lacking faith I am unable to pray for you, but be sure of my wishes for your success in every aspect of life.
So, what type of socks do well-to-do people wear? 🙂
For shirts, slacks, etc., certain brands are recognized as pricey, but I wouldn’t know a $1 sock from a $20 sock!
Ha! I don’t know, I buy my socks at Target. 🙂
When I did my stocktake (http://thefearsefamily.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/a-clothes-shock-take-arg/) I had 41 pairs of socks. I sent about six pairs of ankle high black socks I’d barely worn to the op shop. I miss them. Seriously, a lot of my sock are really thick socks which was great for winter, but it’s not winter any more. Not that I’m encouraging you to keep all your socks. I just wish I’d taken more time over the decision.
I have a lot of socks, but I am keeping them! I live in Europe so over half of them are winter socks for wearing with boots, and the remainder are white for wearing with walking/exercise shoes. None of them is in bad shape so I’m keeping them because a) they take up very little room b) I try only to do laundry when I can dry clothes outdoors, so might only do laundry once a week c) I might not have the $ to buy socks in the future, certainly not at the price that I paid at Marshalls in the US. So in strict terms I’m not being minimalist here, but don’t fee like my socks are cluttering up my life.
I have more socks than you!
But I live in Scotland. I have 3 types of socks – knee highs for boots (3 pairs of boots), flat type socks for flats (2 pairs of flats that work with them), and normal socks for running shoes (used to commute to work). I also have other flats that I wear with tights (pantyhose) and thus don’t require socks. I have enough to make it through a week and a half of not washing clothes!
I was going through my drawer the other day and wondering why I had so many socks.
Turns out, I buy them in packs. 8-packs I bought 2 of those, and it turned out to be 16 pairs of socks, but I do enjoy wearing a fresh pair each time…
I am going to count this evening when I get home, but am guessing I own less than ten pairs. I also live in the south and wear sandals and flats most of the year, but when cooler weather arrives, I like new-ish socks that are not faded or worn thin and crispy. So I usually buy two or three pairs each fall/winter and pitch the ones that have seen better days. My husband and boys however -THAT is a different story, and an ongoing battle for me as mother and chief sock washer.
I think this is the first time I’ve commented since you took over the blog but I am truly enjoying following along and hearing your thought processes. Thank you for your willingness to be so frank about everything.
Thank you for commenting!
A lot. A lot, a lot. I probably have 20 pairs just for running/working out, plus work socks, hiking socks (I don’t hike), and a bunch of those fuzzy socks. Oh and socks that don’t fit right and I never wear. You have inspired me to sort through them and get rid of some! (I probably have even more underthings. That will be next on the list.)
Katie S, well-to-do people wear “hosiery” at $19/pair!
I love your funky socks!! Socks make me happy.
Let’s see, I have 4 pair of low cut socks and 6 of the longer kind, all white. I have 3 fuzzy, around-the-house winter socks (one with grippers on the bottom). And these are more than enough for me. My husband wears scrubs/sneakers to work so has mostly plain white socks, but then there are a couple pair of dress socks, socks for biking, socks for running, and a couple pair for working out in the yard that he can get filthy/stained.
I went through my sock drawer and now have a bag ready to leave the house. Thank you!