Don't you hate it when the number of cows that come out of the wash is less than the number that went in? And what a waste when you have to get rid of a perfectly good one because its mate has been lost.

I'm thinking of a wire screen lid that closes over the top of the rotating tub when the outer lid closes. Or a less expensive, but inferior option: a filter on the drain line, with an easily accessible door to the filter, so you could check for trapped items after each load (or after each flood, if you're the type who prefers to check the dryer lint filter only after each fire).

Hint: If you don't often lose cattle in the wash, this is also a way to cure washing machines of their appetite for socks and other small apparel items. I just thought "cow catcher" was a more memorable term than "sock catcher."
-- beauxeault, Aug 24 2000

Lost sock problem solved in the UK http://www.appliedt...hts.freeserve.co.uk
Solutions to the lost sock problem are available for domestic and industrial users [Applied Thoughts, Aug 24 2000, last modified Oct 17 2004]

I thought dryers were the appliances that ate socks. Did people lose socks in the wash, before dryers came along?
-- centauri, Aug 24 2000


Many people think they disappear in the dryer, but I've heard more than once from sources who at least seemed to be serious about it, that socks actually disappear in the washer. Since the missing sock is not discovered in transferring the laundry from washer to dryer, most people assume it disappears in the dryer.
-- beauxeault, Aug 25 2000


I am working on a method of attaching radio collars to socks. I will update this space with news of my discoveries.
-- Monkfish, Nov 16 2000


My socks seem to vanish in the dryer - when drying on the line, I lose fewer.

(Or perhaps socks have seasonal mating, hibernation, or peregrination patterns, and it's coincidence that weather suitable for line-drying is not suitable for complicated sock life events.)
-- hello_c, Nov 16 2000


I always seem to lose socks when I get hit by a car.
-- AfroAssault, Nov 17 2000


Me too! Even while wearing cow-suit.
-- thumbwax, Nov 17 2000


And here I thought the sock monster lived under the bed.
-- batgirl, Nov 19 2000


Batgirl: actually, the sock monster lives in the cat dimension (also the place cats reside when you can't find them.) There are numerous portals to this dimension within a typical household, including a small one in the dryer (or washer.) The sock monster eats the socks via these portals, and then excretes the reamis under the bathmat. And yes, I've thought about this more than any mentally stable person should.
-- nick_n_uit, Mar 17 2001


What's really weird is when socks... you did not buy, did not wear, have never seen before, and aren't even your size........come out of the dryer with the rest of your clothes every time you do laundry.... Every month I take garbage bags full of these socks out to my dumpster.....
-- Susen, Mar 17 2001



random, halfbakery