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Comment by brianwillis | Hacker News Reader

I own ten identical pairs of black socks. Any sock can be paired with any other. I use a rotation system so they all wear out (approximately) evenly. Every 18 months or so I throw them all out and buy a new set. This reduces the amount of thinking required during laundry and getting ready each morning, which makes me happy.

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Same here. 18 pair of initially white socks. After that I just pick one at random and then one that reasonably matches the shade of grey, pink, or blue that it has acquired on its strange and marvelous journey through laundry land.

When most of them have at least one hole I recycle them and start over.

Well, I use the opposite strategy. I have 15+ (never counted) pairs of non-identical socks, but they're all very colourful. I prefer stripes, but I will consider other patterns. So, when I sort them out, one look at the laundry basket, it's so obvious which sock pairs with which, that no thinking or inspecting is required.

For reference, these are good socks in my book: http://www.happysocks.com/uk/combed-cotton-polka-stripe-14.h...

The advantage of having such socks is that, since I normally only wear black, it make me seem slightly less boring. The disadvantage is that it's hard to find really worthwhile socks. The secrets of the trade are:

1. Always be alert. If you pass by a sock shop, go in. I once did it on a first date.

2. If you see socks you like, buy them. Don't say "I'll come back later" or "I'll find them online". You'll soon realise it's a buy-now-or-get-heartbroken affair.

3.the Internet is your friend. Compile a list of brands who are more likely to produce good socks and online shops who sell them.

3.5 Pro tip: Swedish brands are very colourful-sock friendly.

4. Visit those online shops regularly to see if they have anything worth buying.

5. You can never have enough socks, so if you see qualifying socks, buy them. You can always store them and use them at a later date.

6. Never buy more than one pair of the same design. The only exception is if there is a pair you see you exceptionally like, in which case you can buy two pairs, but store one pair to when the first pair is too worn out to wear.

Edit: formatting.

Edit 2: this obviously also solves the problem of having to throw good socks out as their general population get worn out.

Same here, except that I have a set of black and a set of white (I mostly wear white), which are kept in separate drawers.

I don't have a formal rotation system, though. Just drawing at random from the drawer seems to produce approximately equal wear.

This, but dark brown instead, as more universal color. Buy in bulk 20 pairs (I use http://www.blacksocks.com/ since they seem to keep same model in stock, other producers seem to rename their socks - never can find the same socks later). Once they show signs of too much wear, order new batch and throw all old ones away.

Of course I also own few other colors for special occasions and sport socks, they go to separate drawer.

The 10 identical pairs of black socks doesn't really work for business casual and up unless all your dress pants happen to be black as well.

To be honest I'd think nothing of wearing back socks and grey/khaki pants.

I think you're fine if you're wearing black shoes, no?

I'd agree khaki pants with brown shoes would be weird with black socks

Traditional fashion wisdom is that socks should match pants. If you match your pants to your shoes, it makes it look like you're wearing high-tops. It draws attention away from your shoes when you want to be drawing attention toward your shoes.

If you don't care about fashion, it doesn't matter, though

I go for grey socks. You can wear grey with basically any pair of dress pants. With non-dress pants, I just don't wear socks.

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