Sounds like an argument for one of those mesh laundry bags, so that the laundry load is mixed (multiple categories) without being mixed (individual items interspersed).

I have an "unpaired socks stay in the laundry-room" policy which covers most cases, but it won't help if one of them exfiltrates within another piece of clothing.

How do you get from drying to storing to picking and wearing a pair of shorts without noticing there's a sock stuck inside? I could maybe buy it in case of some loose long pants, but with shorts, you can literally see the entire inside surface when you're lifting them to wear.

Wait, there are people who don't 'mix' laundry like shorts with socks?! For what purpose? Obviously racial segregation and anything needing a different temp or other setting, but ceteris paribus a shorts wash and a socks wash?

Yeppp.

That’s why I started checking. If you don’t catch it early, you’re not going to find it.

Sometimes it also just gets stuck in some clothes and it doesn’t fall out on its own too. If I’m missing a sock, I give my clothes the ol’ shake.