There are six of us in this house.  The 15 year old and the 11 year old girls both share similarly sized feet as do my 4yo and 2yo boys.  This equals sock pandemonium.  I have two solutions.  First, I have trained the members of my household (all but the 2yo) to clip their dirty socks together with a clothespin (cheap from WalMart) before they drop them in the dirty clothes basket.  This equals easy-to-match socks. 

When the socks are folded and put away however, my oldest boys socks seemed to make their way to the younger boys and so on.  My solution?  A good friend of mine told me about the "dot system"

My oldest boy is my number three child.  My youngest boy is my #4 child.  I dot their socks with the appropriate number of tiny circles (courtesy of a blue Sharpie in this case) and I never have to figure out whose socks are whose! 

This system also works for clothes. 

Now for those bright minds that are wondering what happens if I have more children or when my kiddos grow our their socks/clothes...here's your answers.

I buy oldest boy (child #3) new socks.  I put 3 dots on them.  His old socks with 3 dots get passed down to youngest boy (child #4).  I add one dot to those socks giving him a total of 4!  Then if we have baby #5 (hint to hubby if he's reading this) then I can take all of youngest boy's socks (or whatever) and add 1 dot making 5!  Simple enough....you will either love this system or wonder why I am making life so hard on myself :)

Be sure to check out Rocks in My Dryer for more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips

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Posted by Anonymous

Brilliant tip! We have three different sizes of socks that look all too similar. This will help tremendously.

Thanks!
Nikki at nikkianddanny.blogspot.com

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Posted by Anonymous

Good tip!

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Posted by Anonymous

Ok... I am excited about this tip... My oldest sister and I were trying to fitgure whose socks were whose today... Between my daughter and my nephew... How ironic to read your blog !!!

I will keep this in mind....

Jenn Jenn

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Posted by Anonymous

What an awesome tip!!! I'm excited and can't wait to start doing this...thanks!

Jenny-up the hill
www.jennyupthehill.blogspot.com

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Posted by PumpkinsMomma

I'm definitely going to use this idea. That is a good idea. That way it's easier to match socks. Thanks for sharing :)
Marie

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