If you're anything like I am, somewhere in your house there's a pile, drawer, bin or stash of one-off socks; the socks you cannot for the life of you find the matches and mates for. In my case, I have 2 giant hampers of them. And I kid you not, looking at those hampers this weekend, after folding six loads of laundry, I just kind of wanted to burn them both and start all over again.

But I found out this morning that there's a better option.

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Now I can actually get rid of those socks and free up my hampers, but I can also feel good knowing that they're not going to waste. They're actually going to be of benefit to someone else. And by someone I mean dogs.

Wait...I can get rid of my mismatched sock piles AND help dogs, you say? Tell me more!

Gladly!

According to a recent article from Martha Stewart's website (which a friend sent me because she's seen my ever-growing sock pile) there's a brand called Smartwool, and they want to collect these socks to recycle them and keep them from ending up in landfills.

"According to a Smartwool survey, the brand found that socks are thrown away the most out of all clothes. They learned that while 80 percent of people recycle their used clothes, a whopping 91 percent of respondents throw away more than one pair of socks each year. In turn, this creates over 11 million tons of textile waste in landfills on an annual basis."

So instead of chucking your mismatched socks, Smartwool wants you to donate them, so the company can use them to fill dog beds!

There are special bins set up, across the nation, to collect unused socks. Here in Maine, there are 5 locations, across the state, that have sock collection boxes, including Cadillac Mountain Sports in Ellsworth.

For a complete list of locations, check out the Smartwool.com website, by clicking here.

You know where I'll be headed this weekend, with a van full of mismatched socks!

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