With so many different styles and patterns out there, it’s not surprising to find that you’ve accumulated more socks than you realized and maybe even a few now miss their partner. If your sock collection is overflowing out of your drawer, the best way to begin is by doing a purge until you only have what you need. This way, you’ll know what you’re really working with and find it easier to organize them to avoid accumulating too many in the future.

Begin by pairing up all the matching socks you have, leaving all the orphaned singles to throw away or repurpose as rags. Now think about the remaining pairs. Which do you wear often? Which have you honestly not worn in a long while? This is the hard part, but once you’ve chosen all the socks you really use and love, you’ll be ready to move on to organizing them into a system that works for your life.