Your Sock Drawer Sucks: Here's How to Fix it

The average person spends 1 month of their life searching their sock drawer for matches; further proving that getting ready in the morning is a real drag.

There’s so much to do and think about when getting ready that it’s a wonder any of us are actually able accomplish anything once we are finally “ready for work.” So today we’re going to start working towards a more productive, less stressful, and more automated morning routine, starting with our sock drawer.

Yes, the first step to success begins with our sock drawer. But how can socks set us up for success?

Take a look at your sock drawer… what does yours look like? I’m willing to bet it probably looks something like mine did before I made it more automated. Something like this:

This sock drawer needs to get automated!

Look familiar? Now here’s a more recent picture of my automated sock drawer:

Automated sock drawer!

Isn’t it beautiful? Making this one small change to my sock drawer eliminates one step from my morning routine. But that’s not all. Take a look at these additional benefits…

Automated Sock Drawer Benefits:

No more thinking about which socks are going to work… I simply grab and go.
No more matching one sock with another, since all socks in the drawer match each other.
No more thinking any thoughts about socks in the morning… It’s quite refreshing.
No more worrying about matching socks with any other item of clothing I am wearing that day.
No more throwing out perfectly good socks because a mate gets a hole… I have many back-ups.
No more wasting 15+ seconds a day looking for matching socks in a drawer.
No more wasting any brain power on this decision… I can save it for more important thoughts.

I want to focus on that last point for just a moment; decisions. Our brains have a finite amount of decision-making power each day. When we automate our socks, we’re removing one decision every day, freeing our brain to use that precious resource towards something great instead.

Let’s focus our brain power on important decisions like ones that will help us change the world or improve our lives instead of socks!

3 Simple Steps to Update Your Sock Drawer:

Step #1
The absolute first step to automated socks is to make a decision. Let’s make a decision between you and yourself that you are going to do this to make your mornings (and life!) better with this first step.

Step #2
Are you in? Great! Next is to get rid of your current socks. You could donate, recycle, or toss them… or have some fun by burning or giving them to someone you don’t like. You could create some sort of sock inception and put socks inside of another sock (inside of another sock) and give that sock to your dog as a toy (this was the route I went).

Step #3
Now that your sock drawer is empty, it’s time to take a trip to the store and find new socks. I like shopping the discount stores or because there’s no reason to spend a lot of money on socks. Alternatively, Amazon has an amazing selection of socks to choose from. Take a look at the socks the store has and seek ones that could work for any occasion. You’ll probably want socks that are a neutral color like white, gray or black, that way they can match with anything you wear.

Note: I understand that there are going to be times where you really need special socks. Like for weddings, or for… I think that’s it. Maybe it’s just weddings. Oh, and cold winters. Yes. That may be a time where you need some special classy or foot-warmers outside of the ordinary socks. You can put these in a safe spot outside of the normal sock drawer so as to not contaminate the other socks.

Final Thoughts

Be sure to buy a good amount of matching socks. If you fall behind on laundry, it’s nice to have a buffer of socks to keep things going for another week. You’ll never have to worry about running out of fresh ones, and will always be happy when you open the sock drawer!

And that’s it! Your socks are now automated. I know this sounds pretty boring, but I can’t tell you how great it feels to not have to use a single brain cell to deal with this mundane task. Once this is done, we can start crossing off the other 18 tasks that keep us stressed while getting ready for work… like making coffee. Or, you can learn more about automating your coffee here and do even less in the morning. Stay connected for more tips in the future!