15 Uses For Old Socks: Ideas To Reuse & Repurpose
Here are 15 uses for old socks that can help you reuse and repurpose them once they've become worn out, or you've lost the mate, when decluttering them from your sock drawer.
Why does it seem like some socks get up and walk away, or are lost in the dryer or washing machine? Or one sock wears out and gets a hole before the other one does?
If you've got lots of mismatched or missing socks that don't make a full pair anymore there's no point in keeping those lone socks in your sock drawer, or stuck forever in sock purgatory in your missing sock basket.
In such situations it makes sense to declutter these excess socks (check out this Declutter 365 missions about decluttering socks here for more details).
However, once you've decided which socks to stop wearing or keeping with your clothes, instead of completely getting rid of them, you can repurpose them for all kinds of uses around your home. Here are 15 uses for old socks you can try today.
1. Dust rags and cleaning rags
Old socks fit right over your hand, and make a great way to dust furniture, baseboards, and even ceiling fans. They're perfect for all kinds of quick cleaning tasks.
When getting rid of excess sock clutter in your home throw some of these excess socks into your cleaning rag bag for this purpose.
2. Clean shutters and blind slats
An especially great cleaning use for old socks is to clean dusty shutters or blinds since you can put them on your hand and then easily move your hand between the slats, or apply light pressure on both sides of the slat at once to remove the greasy dust that sometimes sticks to the blinds.
3. Polish your car
Old soft socks are great for applying a coat of wax or polish to your car's finish.
4. Buff and shine shoes
Remove dust from shoes, or even apply shoe polish and then buff and shine shoes.
5. Apply stains to furniture or crafts
Use old socks to apply stains when refinishing furniture or doing crafts, and then just throw them away when you're done.
6. Eraser for white boards
Many schools have kids use old socks as erasers for personal white boards when practicing writing or math problems. You could also use this idea at home for homeschool or after school homework practice.
7. Dampened sock in dryer to remove wrinkles
When you forget clothes in the dryer and they get all wrinkled there's no need to iron everything or wash it again. Instead, throw in a dampened mismatched sock or two and run the load in the dryer again for a few minutes and the wrinkles will all come out.
8. Protect small breakable objects in storage
When packing up and storing small breakable items place each one inside a sock to pad the item, and to protect it from chipping or clinking with other breakables also in the box.
9. Protect floors when moving furniture
When moving furniture with legs protect your floors from scrapes by putting a sock on each furniture leg.
10. Homemade shoe deodorizer pouch
If your shoes are stinky add a few tablespoons of baking soda to the toe of an old sock and then tie off the sock with a knot. Shove the filled sock into the toe of the shoe and leave overnight to absorb smells and odors.
11. Cover an ice pack
Instead of using a wash cloth or other fabric that slips, when covering an ice pack, just put the ice pack inside the sock and then apply to the boo boo.
12. Homemade microwaveable heating pad
Fill a natural fiber sock with rice and tie it off with a knot. You can then put this in the microwave for 1-2 minutes for a homemade heating pad.
13. Cat toy
Fill the toe of a sock with polyfill and a small pinch of catnip, and then tie it off for a frugal cat toy.
14. Pull toy for dogs
Tie multiple socks together to create a length, making sure the knots are tight so while you're playing they don't give way, and let your dog pull and tug at this homemade toy.
15. Sock puppets
Sock puppets are easy to make with an old sock and a marker, and perhaps a bit of yarn if you really want to get fancy, plus your imagination. Kids love both making them and playing with them afterward.
What do you do with old socks? I'd love to hear your ideas as well in the comments below.
Here's a couple more articles on the site, related to decluttering and organizing socks, that you can check out:
Here's how to declutter old socks, as part of the Declutter 365 missions on the site:
In addition, here's how to keep track of (temporarily) lost socks when doing laundry, so you can rematch them back up, using a sock basket:
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