The mystery of the missing socks. Where the heck did they go?

It's about those socks. You know, the ones that are missing. Where the heck did they go??

Image by Lucy Toner

Ever since people have been wearing socks and washing their clothes in washing machines, I imagine this question has been asked. Millions of times. It's not like gloves, which we know we might drop in a store or in a parking lot. No. Socks are on our feet when we go out and they don't just fall off. We don't drop them places. They remain in our homes. So, tell me, please, how do they get lost? I mean, seriously, where are they hiding?

I understand how a stray sock will end up under the bed or behind the headboard or something. But eventually it will be found. Unless, of course, you never vacuum or clean out under your bed. My question really is about the socks that are never found. NEVER!

Where are they? 

When my kids were little, we used to have a blue plastic bin where all the single socks went on laundry day. It was called the Widowed Sock Bucket. Once a month or so, we'd dump it onto the floor and have a matchmaking session, reuniting socks with their long-lost mates. Oh the joy! Inevitably, however, some would end up back with other unpaired widows hoping their mates would not be MIA forever. If socks do indeed hope.

Years later, when we were moving, we threw the single socks away. We never did find their mates. Where the heck did they go?

I'm dumbfounded. Even now, with just the two of us, my husband and I encounter this perplexing dilemma. And again I ask, where the heck did they go?

Can someone fill me in?