We all have old socks lying around that we have absolutely no use for. We can easily just thrown them away, or we can be creative and use them for lots of different purposes. So, don’t throw you old / odd socks in the bin just because the washing machine ate them, take a look at all the ways you can use them below.
Duster – People sometimes complain that they don’t have the tools to give their space a thorough clean (students, we are looking at you in particular). Well, if you lost one sock in the washing machine and have an odd sock left over then why not use it to dust off your surfaces. If you wet your sock just a little bit then that should be enough to pick up a fair amount of dust from your space.
Eraser – Have a white board at home? Perhaps you have lost your eraser, so either you have to keep the chores you wrote up on it from last week on your white board or you get your hands inky and mucky. Why not just use old socks as your erasers? Just simply turn the sock inside out and wipe your board clean.
Sock Puppet – This is a great little accessory to play with and to make. It doesn’t matter if you have kids (or big kids, your husband / boyfriend might equally enjoy this…) or not, let your creative side go and make a fun sock puppet. If you want to know more about making a sock puppet and you’d consider yourself somewhat of an amateur then visit wikihow’s guide on how to make a sock puppet.
Dog Toy – If you have a dog then you’ll know that most dogs are obsessed with socks (and underwear and bras in some cases). Whether its chewing them or stealing them, find out why dogs love socks so much here. Use the sock as a standalone toy. You can even role lots of socks in to a ball and use it as a fetch toy. Another idea is to tie a sock around a tennis ball so that it’ll make a really good pull toy for them to chew.
Get Wacky – Be unconventional and wear odd socks, dare to wear. Infact, if you wear odd socks it shows that you are supporting anti-bullying campaigns. You can even show your support for world down syndrome day on the 21st of March and join the lots of socks cause. Find more information on the worlddownsyndromeday website. If you are just looking for funky socks then check out our socks below.
Stop Drafts – Is there a draft in your house anywhere. Socks can be really useful to contain drafts by concealing gaps in doors and on windowsills. Fill your old socks with rice (believe it or not) and simply fill the gaps. You’ll see your homes energy efficiency improve significantly!
Polishing – Not many people keep polishing kits at home these days, unless they wear a suit and polish their shoes everyday or keep a lot of silver at home. Even if you do have a polishing kit and have lost the cloth that you would normally use then consider using a pair of old socks as your backup. A great reusable or disposable cloth to use to wax furniture or to polish items that need polishing.
Protect Shoes – If you have been sent out to do a particularly mucky job, whether it is walking the dog in a muddy field or doing gardening on a wet & cold winters day then use old socks to pull over your shoes. This will be particularly handy if you wear white trainers all the time or simply just not have any old shoes. How unorthodox this method may sound, it will protect your footwear.
Venetian Blinds Cleaner – If you are using old socks similar to how you would use a mitt then it will be really ‘handy’ for cleaning blinds. Just wash and reuse for next time if your odd socks / old socks supply is low.
Ice Pack Cover – If you have a headache or a sports injury then an ice pack is a glorious relief for your pain. But then you realise the ice pack is far too cold when you don’t have a buffer between the pack itself and your skin. Consider using an old sock as a cover, if you are using old cotton socks then it’ll be a nice soft ice pack. You could even do this if you just have ice on its own, just make sure it doesn’t melt too quickly!
Ponytail Band – If you have funky socks and you have no desire to buy a ponytail band then using old socks will do the trick. You will need to be a little crafty. Just cut a section of the tube / foot off on the sock and use it to tie your hair into a ponytail with.
Keep Board Game Pieces – Losing games pieces is something that we can all do, if you have kids you’ll definitely understand this. Just use an old sock to keep dice, monopoly pieces or dominoes. Just tie the end of the sock so that nothing falls out, you then have a sack to keep your games pieces in. Fantastic as well if you want to take these pieces away on holiday with you.
Golf Club Covers – Just like how you can use old socks to protect your footwear, you can also use socks as a golf club protector. Avoid taking unnecessary scratches to your clubs whilst they are in transit to your favourite golf club. You can even write on you old socks to identify which club is which.
Cover Window Wipers – Old knee high socks are specially handy for keeping window wipers from being covered in ice in the cold snowy winter. It will prevent the wipers from freezing over so that when you can get in your car you can head off straight away, instead of waiting for your wipers to thaw. It is important that you have knee high or over the knee socks for this trick.
Create Legwarmers – Again, if you have over the knee or knee high socks then creating DIY leg warmers can be useful and fun. Again, you need to be a bit crafty, a spare 10-30 minutes but the end results you can get are fabulous. Take a look at a pretty nifty tutorial on how to make legwarmers.
Chairs & Tables – You can use socks to protect wooden floors that could be prone to being scratched easily. Just tie an old sock to the end of a chair / table leg to create a buffer between the leg and the floor. If you can’t pick the furniture up it will also help you slide it along the floor.
DIY Hot Packs – As well as creating ice packs to keep you cool, you can also create hot packs using old socks. Just fill an old sock with steaming hot rice and then sew the sock up. When the rice goes cold again you can just microwave the packs, so they are reusable as well. These are great if you have kids with growing pains, the extra heat will give the pain relief.
Protect Valuables whilst Moving – Put your smaller valuables inside you socks, if you don’t they’ll be a pain to store. Just tie the sock up when you are finished.
Donate them to Charity – If you are not too crafty are probably not going to use old socks to help you in your daily life then just donate them. Homeless shelters would take the socks, as long as they are of good quality. Pet charities could find old socks really useful to make beds for homeless animals. You can even recycle them so that they can be used to make other items. Find out how to recycle your socks.
Create a Stress Ball – Roll old socks upon old socks into a ball and use them as a stress ball. You can even put a filler in the middle of the ball to make it more durable. So, when you get home, don’t take it out on your husband, just use a sock stress ball.
If you’re tired of reading about what you can do with you old socks then consider getting some new ones instead. Just visit the sock snob online shop for a wide selection of smart creative socks. We hope that you found this list of ideas on how you can use your old socks as useful as we have.
Connor Doughty