Chronicles: Sock It To Me!

It may sound super strange, but we recently adopted house socks vs. outside socks. The origin of this now infamous family tradition is quite simple, actually. How peculiar that after living in my mother's house for almost 20 years and living in four different apartments all covered in the typical beige carpet, I had never once heard that house shoes, or socks, as it is in our home, could be the difference between replacing the carpet in 5 years or 15! When I read the manual to our first home I was astonished that it was written and visible in plain sight. I saw that preserving the carpet for years and years was not an impossible feat. It had all the typical, common sense stuff we mostly know about carpet. It said that you have to vacuum every day and keep high traction areas covered, all normal stuff. But, what I read next would be the holy grail of home management, at least in this home, for years to come. It read, the natural, or otherwise, oils in your feet adhere to the fibers of the carpet, which causes the dirt to attach and become a part of the carpet and it cannot be vacuumed! That changes everything. This is why dirty carpet is really dirty and no amount of cleaning makes it any better.

So, I've always made everyone cover their feet. But, it turns out that boys are really hard on socks when they wear them all the time. This means that when I take my boys anywhere their socks are in pretty bad shape. So, we instituted the rule of house socks and outside socks. We also host guests by putting a sock basket at the foyer for guests wearing sandals. We wear socks or house-shoes at ALL times, unless walking on non-carpeted surfaces, and actually have a separate set of socks for walking around the house and for going out. I make the boys wear the clean, fresh socks when we go out and the beat up play socks inside. This makes mommy happy everywhere!!!