You Are Not Crazy If You Think the Washing Machine Is Stealing Your Socks. Here’s What Happens

Here it goes again. You unload your washing machine, take out the clean laundry, and you can’t find that sock, although you remember putting it inside. There’s nothing wrong with your memory, it’s just that the washing machine is... stealing your socks. As it turns out, socks and other small items can simply get stuck in parts of the washing machine, and it’s not a rare case.

Here at Bright Side, we learned more about this laundry mystery, and now we can’t wait to open our own washing machines and look for the lost socks inside.

People find socks inside their washers during checkups, and experts have the explanation.

If you keep losing socks, and you suspect they disappear somewhere during washing, the first place you need to check is the rubber gasket that is located between the door and the drum of the washing machine. When the washer’s door is closed, this gasket makes a tight seal and doesn’t let the water escape.

According to experts, during the washing cycle, socks can simply get stuck between the rubber gasket and the metal part of the drum or slip through a hole in the gasket.

Eventually, socks and other small items that escaped the drum during the washing cycle can be found inside the machine, and you can see them if you take off the machine cover, as shown in the picture below. According to engineers, both front-loading and top-loading washers can “eat” the laundry.

Here are some solutions.

To save yourself the trouble of taking out the lost laundry out of your washing machine, you can follow these 2 simple steps recommended by the experts:

• Regularly check the rubber gasket when you clean it. Make sure there are no holes in it. This will also prevent water from leaking.
• Do not overload the washing machine.

One more annoying thing our washing machines like doing

Eating our socks is obviously not enough, and sometimes our washing machines tuck the laundry inside duvet covers, pillowcases, or other large items. Smaller items get trapped inside bigger ones during washing cycles and simply can’t get out. Luckily, this problem has a pretty easy solution: just close the flap of the duvet cover before loading the washing machine, or consider putting the smaller items inside a mesh laundry bag.

Did you know washing machines can actually steal your laundry? Has this article made you think of checking your washer? We hope you can eventually find all your lost socks!