Okay, you may have read this blog headline and thought “ew,” but you can find a useful afterlife for your old socks. And how nice would it be to find a use for that sad little sock that somehow lost its mate in the washer or dryer? I know we always have mateless socks around this house.
Here are a few things you may want to do with old, clean socks:
Heating Pad
I always read about how you can make a heating pad out of rice and material, such as a sock and I always think I will make one and I never do. Maybe writing this will inspire me to actually do it. Just fill an old sock with rice and either sew the end shut or tie it in a knot. Put this in the microwave and let it het for between two and four minutes and you have a handy heating pad.
Hand Puppet
You can make sock puppets out of your old socks. Decorate them with markers, fabric, yarn, plastic eyes, sequins – anything you can find in your crafts box. Let the kids get involved in this project and it will be a fun project for the whole family.
Dog Pull Toy
Just like the old t-shirts, you can turn old socks into a dog pull toy. Just tie several together in a knot and play tug of war with your dog. The other good thing about this is the sock will smell like you, your spouse, or your children, and the dog will love that scent.
Dust Rag
If your old socks are cotton, they will make a great dust rag for wood furniture. And I like the fact that you can slip the sock over your hand – seems to make dusting easier.
Garden Stake Ties
My hubby just planted some tomatoes for me the other day and was saying the plants were getting so tall that he needed to put up a stake. Cut old socks into strips and they will be great for tying the plants to garden stakes.
Remember when throwing stuff out that there may still be a good use for that item.
(This image has been (or is hereby) released into the public domain by its author, Carlb at the English Wikipedia project. This applies worldwide.)
