Are new socks an indication of a mid life crisis?

I sat next to a rather 'county' gentleman in M&S cafe recently. He was dressed from head to toe in red. Sweater, cord trews, socks, suede shoes and coat& cap. Amazing but he seemed to carry it off

Juney that's so sweet!
My DH wears red trousers. Actually they're a fairly safe burgundy. They look fine. He's in his early 80s. Sartorially pretty unaware but has the stature to carry off most things,

There comes a time when men start wearing red trousers .....have you noticed?around 65 ish. It tends to go with fairly silly hats, striped socks and, sometimes coloured shoes. They've worn boring work clothes for soooo long and in the words of 'Queen' they want to break free!

My DH is not too bad with sock choices, but he has just come home with some new underwear that he 'needed'. Great I thought until I saw them - BRIGHT deckchair stripes anyone??

Me too Wot. I put coloured threads on the waistband of my opaques otherwise DGD wears them for school and they go all bobbly.

Phoenix that sounds like a whole lot of socks to sort!

This wee cat has the right idea. ?

When my four children were young I always kept an odd sock box that used to get looked in once a month to see if we could find pairs. Amazing that some just were never found. I used the lonely ones on my hands for shoe cleaning and for polishing brass, silver etc. Saves staining hands.

I used to be a Matron in a boys' college, and had to wash socks for 63 boys and then PAIR them all up... I leave it to your imagination what I feel about socks!!!!
I actually do LOVE stripey ones on men though

Socks don't seem to last long these days. When I throw away one of a pair I always keep the other, then on days when I'm only pottering about the garden I wear 'fashionably mismatched'.

I THINK I have solved the problem. I learnt how to knit socks. I then discovered that from a 100g ball of sock yarn, if I used different yarns of odds and ends from my stash of wool for the heels and toes, I could get three socks out of one ball, so the theory is, there will always be one pair available when the other one goes awol. It's only been a couple of years so far, and life does seem a little less fraught. Also, the family get to choose their own colours and you would be surprised at what they choose. The men love really, really bright ones. I think they have been colour-starved and brain-washed into thinking they have to choose colours that my grandmother would have called 'serviceable'. The ones I am currently knitting for my son are in shades of red, pink and orange! I wouldn't be seen dead in them!

I've used those little clips for pairing socks and I find that they work. I put them in a medium launder-net bag. However, may I offer some advice on the aforementioned bags? Get the zipped ones. I stupidly replaced the older tatty zippies with the drawstring variety instead as they were a bit cheaper - what a mistake!
They sometimes undo themselves in the washing machine and the socks escape. Also bras and pants - most annoying. Until I get round to replacing them I have to put the damn things inside a pillowcase for extra security. Blasted hell and damnation.
But to answer your original question - it's a very mild midlife crisis - it's the leather jacket and the Harley Davidson you really need to worry about.

My husband has a similar sock drawer, lots of socks all in black but very slightly different. He is also really fussy about them being paired correctly. My solution is that I give him his clean socks in a heap and HE sits there pairing them for hours, not me

i have a "thing" about wearing odd socks - not me wearing the socks but my daughter and two grandaughters who live with me. i can't bear seeing odd socks being worn! whether it's fashionable or just plain laziness i still can't bear it.
and, talking of where do odd socks go, has anyone read terry pratchett's "hogfather"? in there you will find the sock monster who eats odd socks ......... i firmly believe that every house has one of these and that's where the odd socks go.

One of my GS is always losing his socks so I bought him a 'bottle' of odd socks for Christmas and he was over the moon!!! No more nagging - unless it's the school socks that have gone AWOL.

A couple of years ago I bought 2 packets of bright green clips from Home Bargains -like these ones-

/www.amazon.co.uk/d/Laundry-Storage-Organisation/Tidi-Pack-Sock-Saver-Clips/B004P

Never seen them again but they are the best £2 I've ever spent.

Mr C was easily trained to put them on before placing in washing and as long as they are put on properly they stay on and all socks are still in pairs after washing and airing. No longer do I have half a shelf of odd socks in my airing cupboard kept in the vain hope that their partners would miraculously reappear one day!

I've always thought midlife crisis for men was either buying a powerful bike sports car or denim jacket!

I wear brightly coloured striped socks to work... I wear a uniform...beige calf length skirt and navy polo. My favourites are my striped ones with smiley faces on....hahaha

Oh you can buy odd socks...they come in a set of three...I get them on ebay.

Anyway in answer to your question. No, it is not a midlife crisis. The rebel has come out in him...brilliant.

I was so fed up of odd socks, when I do the washing I count them into the machine before turning it on. This method seems to work for me.

Don't like seeing blokes in odd socks.

I bought "mesh" bags in various sizes that go in the washing machine. The smallest size fits one pair of socks.

That was because years ago I got fed up trying to find where DH and DS's socks had gone when unloading the washing and refused to wash socks that are not presented as a matching pair.

The matching pairs are enclosed in the zip-up mesh bags - problem solved!

Highly recommend.

I wear knee high socks and that is just as bad if not worse. Never seen so many shades of medium brown and different types of black knee highs that don't match..

Lakeland sell little clip things top fasten socks into pairs. As a wife and mother of 2 bits, I trained all my men, and me, to use them speeds up the sorting process no end. Only thing is, you need to wash them in a net in case the little things come off and get stuck in the hose!

Compared to other manifestations of mid-life crisis (see the Over-reacting thread) I think you have got off lightly!!

My husband has a box labelled "Box-o'-socks" where all the odd, lonely socks go. Now and again he'll empty it and try to matchmake the lonely ones, but there is always a pile that cannot be matched and never will be. Where on earth have their partners gone??!

When my children were young I'd just put the laundry basket of clean socks in front of the TV and tell them to help all those socks find their friends.
They were kind little people so it appealed. I'm sure this would work with big people too.
If you think about it its quite a good mathematical exercise, all that sorting by colour, size etc, perhaps it should be on the National Curriculum!

Perhaps Mr P is colour blind. However now he has settled on 2 packs of socks go back to the shop and buy 2 more of each pack. You should be well away with matching socks then.

I put all my spare socks in a net in a drawer and as the wash comes round occasionally I get a match!!