How to put on socks from a seated position
Quick answer: A sock aid does the part you cannot do: it holds the sock open at the end of two cords so your foot goes in without your hands going down there. Try it with the foot flat on the floor first, not crossed over your knee — crossing is what most people find they no longer need.
Not quite your situation? Putting on socks when you can't bend or reach or see every reason putting on socks gets hard.
Putting on a sock is a two-part job and only one part is hard. Holding the sock open takes two hands and fine finger work, which usually still works fine. Getting those hands down to the foot is the problem: seated, your foot is roughly two feet below your hands and behind your knee, and reaching it means folding your chest past your thighs. In a chair with armrests there is nowhere for that fold to go; in a wheelchair it also takes your weight forward of the wheels. Crossing the foot over the opposite knee is the usual workaround, and it needs hip rotation and enough leg strength to hold the foot up there while both hands work.
Try this first (no purchase)
- Dress the foot that is easier first. Whichever side crosses more comfortably, do that sock while you still have the most energy and the fewest twists behind you. The second one always takes longer.
- Put the sock on before you transfer. On the edge of a firm bed, the foot is closer and your back has more room than in a chair with arms. If you get dressed sitting on the bed anyway, socks belong at the start rather than after you have moved.
- Roll the sock down to the toe first. Push the whole sock into a doughnut at the toe end, so you only have to get that ring over your toes and then unroll it up your foot. The stretch happens on the way up your ankle, where your hands already reach.
- Buy socks that meet you halfway. Wide, loose-topped socks — the kind sold for swollen feet or for diabetes — go on with a fraction of the pull, and a longer leg gives you more to hold. It is the cheapest change on this page.
- Use the hook you already own. A long-handled shoehorn or even an umbrella handle can push a sock the last inch up the heel. It is not the whole solution, but it often closes the gap on the harder foot.
What actually helps
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Getting socks on
Our pick
RMS Deluxe Sock Aid with foam handles
Sock aid · how to choose a sock aid
$9.97 price as of Sep 27, 2026 at 4:47 pm ET
Check price on Amazon (opens new tab)- Why it works
- The shell holds the sock open on the floor in front of you, so the foot goes in flat and the cords do the lifting from lap height.
- Who it won't suit
- Loading the sock onto the shell is two-handed work in your lap, and a chair with armrests leaves less room for it than a bed does.
What reviewers report
Reviewers put their socks on without bending after hip or knee surgery, or while managing arthritis and back pain. Several wish they had bought one before the operation rather than after. — Our summary of customer reviews on Amazon · read the reviews (opens new tab)
Cheaper option
Cubii 26" wooden dressing stick with hook
Dressing stick
$8.99 price as of Sep 27, 2026 at 4:47 pm ET
Check price on Amazon (opens new tab)- Why it works
- Short enough to keep beside the chair rather than propped in a corner, and the hook reaches a heel without your shoulders leaving the backrest.
- Who it won't suit
- At 26 inches it suits a shorter reach; if your feet sit further forward on a footplate, the longer sticks reach where this one stops.
What reviewers report
Reviewers name hip and knee replacement recovery and arthritis as the reason they bought it, and describe dressing themselves while bending was still off limits. — Our summary of customer reviews on Amazon · read the reviews (opens new tab)
Another option
CAidRE wide sock aid with foam handles
Sock aid · how to choose a sock aid
$9.99 price as of Sep 27, 2026 at 4:47 pm ET
Check price on Amazon (opens new tab)- Why it works
- The wider shell takes a thick or compression sock without it sliding off, and the cords are long enough to pull from a seat with armrests.
- Who it won't suit
- The width that helps a thick sock makes a thin one loose on the shell, and it needs floor space in front of the chair to sit flat.
What reviewers report
Reviewers under hip-replacement bending restrictions say it solved the sock problem, and one with severe arthritis reports no trouble working it. — Our summary of customer reviews on Amazon · read the reviews (opens new tab)
Shoes afterwards
Our pick
Phantawell 35.5" shoehorn and dressing stick
Long-handled shoehorn
$8.32 price as of Sep 27, 2026 at 4:47 pm ET
Check price on Amazon (opens new tab)- Why it works
- One end is a shoehorn for the heel, the other a hook for the sock, so the tool you already have in your hand does the next step too.
- Who it won't suit
- At 35.5 inches it is long to store beside a chair, and the two ends mean turning it around mid-task with both hands.
What reviewers report
Reviewers who cannot bend after back surgery say the length is what matters: at thirty-five inches it reaches boots, and the hook on the other end also pulls socks off. — Our summary of customer reviews on Amazon · read the reviews (opens new tab)
1 more option follow below.
More options that also work (1)
These fit too, but we'd try the picks above first.
27" beech dressing stick with metal hook
Dressing stick
$9.99 price as of Sep 27, 2026 at 4:47 pm ET
Check price on Amazon (opens new tab)- Why it works
- The hook pushes a sock off over the heel at the end of the day, which is the half of the job a sock aid cannot do at all.
- Who it won't suit
- It pushes and pulls but never holds the sock open, so on its own it does not get a sock on — it is the partner to a sock aid, not a substitute.
What reviewers report
Reviewers recovering from a hip replacement, and people who cannot bend far enough to reach a zipper, say the stick does the reaching for them. — Our summary of customer reviews on Amazon · read the reviews (opens new tab)
What not to buy for putting on socks from a seated position
- Rigid one-piece sock aids with no cords — you push your foot in and then pull the aid away by hand, which puts your hands back down at foot level. The cords are the whole point: they let you pull from where you sit.
- Sock aids with thin cord loops — a thin cord cuts into the fingers exactly when you are pulling hardest, and the pull is the part that needs a grip. Foam handles cost a dollar more.
- Battery-powered dressing machines — they cost many times what the cord-and-trough kind does, take up floor space, and still need you to load the sock onto them, which is the fiddly part the cheap version also asks for.
Buying this for someone else?
- Ask what they can reach from where they sit, and whether the answer changes on a bad day. Reach, trunk control and stamina vary a lot between people who use the same kind of chair.
- Measure the chair as well as the person: seat height, armrest height, and whether the armrests come off. A tool that has to clear the armrests is a different tool from one that does not.
- Check what the second hand is for. If one hand steadies them, anything needing two hands at once is out, however good the reviews are.
- Ask where it will live. A reacher on a hook by the bed and another by the sofa beats one excellent reacher in a cupboard, and anything that has to be fetched will not be used.
- Ask before buying anything that attaches to their chair. A chair is usually set up by a therapist for that person, and bags, trays and clamps change how it balances.