Well, here is some mindlessly frivolous first-world stuff that I’m pondering this morning while waiting for the washer and dryer to finish their cycles. At what point do you decide that your socks have worn out to the point where they are no longer worthy and become designated as toss-able?

This batch of five pairs – which appear by their condition to have been the ones worn more often (I found it interesting to see this has been my most frequent go-to colorway) – are becoming threadbare at the heels….. but they haven’t become holes yet. The toes are still totally intact. Okay, the turquoise pair in the center are not in good shape and they definitely need to go, but the rest…..I hesitate.

Once upon a time I would have kept favorite socks until both toes and heels were totally poking through. But at this point in life, I have So Many Socks, an entire drawer full, packed to maximum capacity, and really do not need anymore. I don’t ever have to worry about running out of socks. As a matter of fact, my plan is to wear and use up every single pair in this drawer, which will no doubt take years, perhaps a lifetime. So why am I hesitating to throw them out?

There are a number of angles to approach this. I think part of the hesitation is that the remaining socks in the drawer are not these same colors that I have been frequently wearing. Or maybe it is that they do actually have some life left in them, which sets off that bothersome voice in my head which tends to nag about Not Being Wasteful. Going down that particular road, I actually considered cutting off the foot part of these and using the fun printed tops to make something.

Somewhere I saw where some crafty person was taking pieces of their used up cool-looking socks and patching holes in their jeans with them, so that the designs on the sock material would be peeking out. Which sounds like a great idea if you have jeans to embellish. But for me that is more of a once-upon-a-time thing I might have done when younger, but will never bother with now. I’m not going to be making anything with cut up socks.

As an aside, at this writing the monetary value of five pairs of socks like these is actually about sixty dollars. Since I don’t need to replace them, that’s kind of moot, but still surprising. I think most of my friends would say “Throw those damn socks out!” But a few might actually feel there is more mileage to them.

Pictured are the candidates for tossing. The fact they really aren’t going to fit back in that crowded sock drawer adds to the incentive of letting them go.

True to their natures, my younger daughter feels they have a few more washes and wearings to go, at which point the decision can be revisited. My older daughter says she would toss them but maybe the teal butterflies still have life. These are the responses I would have expected from each of them. But I’m curious as to how others feel about what designates “the point of no return.” Is there a certain personality that would choose either way? Who finds them still viable and Sock-Worthy? Who does not?

So much for musings and mind-wandering. I look wistfully at my little pile of colorful, threadbare socks sitting on the bed. In the time it took to write this, my laundry is dry and I guess I’ll get up out of this chair and move on to folding now. It’s interesting how many meaningless little diversions like these can go through your head in a day. Sometimes I think they help to balance all the other bigger things.

~*~