Life

Scientists Think They Know Why You Lose Socks in the Laundry

By Mix 105.1

Posted on April 26, 2016

Scientists think they’ve figured out why you lose your socks. Apparently, they don’t magically disappear. They say it depends on how much laundry you do, the number of people in your house, and the number of socks in a load.

seinfeld bored george costanza laundry dull

A psychologist and a statistician came up with a mathematical formula called the ‘Sock Loss Index.’ It’s too complicated, so here’s the gist:

First you multiply the number of people in a household, times the frequency of washes. You also multiply the different types of washes you do; Like darks, whites, and different temperatures, times the number of socks you wash in a week.

Then you add those numbers. But here’s the best part, you also factor in someone’s attitude. Like whether they check pockets, unroll sleeves, turn clothes the right way out, and unroll socks. Not surprisingly, men are worse than women.

Then you multiply attitude times attention to detail, and subtract it from the other number. See? way too complicated. But that’s the point, doing laundry is more complex than it seems.

Which explains why the average person loses 15 socks a year, that’s a little over one sock a month. Or 1,264 socks in your lifetime.

The top three reasons people give for losing socks are: They fall behind furniture, one sock doesn’t make it in, or they get blown away when they’re drying outside. (Who’s still drying socks outside???)

But I take issue with this study! With two boys I do a lot of laundry, and I firmly believe there are other forces at work here.

For instance:

Tiny hedgehogs can carry them off!

hedgehog sock