Cause

The washer hose broke and sprayed water all over the laundry room for ten minutes before anyone heard the water dripping off the ceiling tiles and shut it off. Both the dirty clothes on the floor and the clean on the counter were drenched creating new, larger piles of laundry. Water line repairs came first and then the endless rewashing. The folding never happened, and clothes resigned to being thrown in plastic baskets one sock in the blue round one and its match in the white square basket never making it into a drawer.

Later someone found a long striped sock and frantically dumped the entire contents of the blue basket onto the floor looking for the mate instead finding a pair of white athletic socks and pulling them on leaving the unmatched one crumpled next to the bed to be kicked underneath by the dog and found again in the spring when the mattress is flipped. It's mate in the white square basket would likely become the catalyst of an infuriating hide and seek game over the next few months causing hysterical emptying and refilling of baskets and drawers, scrambled tossing of handfuls of clothes in all directions and slightly pissy moods in general.