I am so glad that raised my children to be self supporting contributing members of society. This is the reason that I made the children go away, and its wonderful that they will still come back to visit. They then always leave later in the evening, and I am way OK. There now are only mine and DH's socks to locate, but having puppies sometimes still makes find all the socks difficult. I have found socks out in the backyard.
Once the kids hit puberty, I bought Family Sox. That's right, my daughter & I wear men's socks, so do hubby & son. I threw out half a laundry basket of unmatched socks several months ago.
When I get too pi$$ed at the chaos, I start throwing stuff in two bags - one is trash & the other is Goodwill.
When you find a Christmas present on the floor of your closet that you bought for your daughter and forgot to wrap in 2003! This happened to me yesterday. Cute little denim skirt still in the shopping bag with tags and receipt. It definitely doesn't fit her anymore - think the store would take it back 6 years later?!?
Somewhere there is the milliped planet. The people there have zillions of feet and wear a different sock on each foot. They aquire their socks one at a time, from the laundry baskets and washing machines of the American public....
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Besides, its the only plausible explanation for all the missing socks.