Your socks are dangerous even if they don't smell :)

If you knew what polyester is made from - crude oil and cotton that needs large amounts of water and pesticides - you’d see why cheaper isn’t necessarily better. Polyester is also one of those inventions that has a half life in the years, and will probably still be hanging around when you cease to be.

Estimating that the average person goes through about six to seven pairs of socks per year and multiply that by the number of years you will live, on average, well - that’s a lot of socks! Pile up all of that polyester, and you’ve got quite a mess. So, instead of adding to the environmental mess, why don’t you try to recycle your socks? After all, they’re durable.

Here are some ideas of what to do with your old socks instead of filling up another landfill:

- Repurpose them as cleaning, dust and polishing rags.

- Use them in hard to clean places, to dust blinds and under appliances. Socks are perfect in that you can slip your hand into them just like a mitten. In that way, you can get into corners and over and under things as easily as you could with your bare hand.

- Use them as whiteboard erasers.

- Since they’re elastic, use them to tie vines to stakes for your vegetables and assorted other crashing plants. Believe you me, when you come back in six months, the socks will still be working. Remember, they’re made from polyester.

- Soap on a rope in the yard. If you have a pool and shower, slip a bar of soap in a sock, and viola, instant hanging soap. I’d avoid using this inside; who wants an old sock of soap hanging in their indoor shower.

As you can see, there are a lot of things you can do with old socks besides adding them to the landfill mess. It just takes a little creativity and knowledge that you can do just about anything with them and they’re so tough, they’ll probably never run out of uses.