Prepare to have your mind blown as an expert has revealed the surprising truth about where your missing socks wind up when you are doing the laundry.

For as long as we can remember, doing laundry has been an exercise in frustration and confusion when socks seem to mysteriously disappear without a trace, leaving behind countless unmatched pairs and an enduring question: where do they go?

However, a repair technician in the US has seemingly solved the enduring mystery by revealing a little-known compartment that can be found in top-load washing machines where smaller clothing items can become trapped.

Taking to TikTok, the expert shared a video showing the removal of the front panel of a washing machine to reveal a hidden compartment overflowing with socks previously thought to be lost for all eternity.

“Yes it’s true, that is one of the places that you can lose your socks in your washing machine,” the expert explains.

She revealed that socks are likely to wind up in the compartment when people dump all their laundry items in at one, “overloading” the machine.

”That’s usually what happens because the drum where you’re putting your clothing is enclosed by this big metal box, which is what they were taking the front panel off to find those socks,” she added.

“But if you’re just dumping all of your clothing in, what can happen a lot of times is smaller items, especially socks, can kind of find their way over the edge of that drum into the space between that metal body and the drum itself.

“Basically there’s a gap in between the top of that drum and the top of where that metal is, you can actually kind of reach your hand inside of it, which is why socks can also wind up falling inside of it.”

@d7customz Do you ever wonder where your socks go? ???? #screammovie #fypシ゚viral #washerhacks #socks#maintenance ♬ original sound – GLOSS

Viewers were quick to share their amazement at the discovery, no doubt keen to quickly have a look for themselves and reclaim years of lost socks.

“So they really do go somewhere,” one person wrote.

“All the years joking about how “the dryer eats them”

“Here i thought they were going to another dimension,” another added.

“Are my Tupperware lids in there too?”

“And here I thought dryer lint was the cremated remains of all my missing socks.”

The video has already amassed over 20 million views, with that number likely to be matched by the number of socks viewers will now discover hidden away in their washing machines.