We keep two hampers in our bedroom - one for lights and one for darks. This way the laundry is presorted. If you can also train your family to turn things right-side out, empty pockets and unroll cuffs before tossing things into the hamper, you've won half the battle. Forget what your mother told you about sorting laundry into tiny little picky loads. Buy two zippered mesh bags for your light and dark delicates, and toss them in with the rest of the wash.
Socks can also go into zippered mesh bags hung on the front of the hampers.
This saves a lot of sock-sorting time, and is especially good if you have kids with similar socks. Any family member who creates special laundry problems like handwashing, dry cleaning or ironing should be responsible for that work themselves. Don't be so picky about the laundry that you are the only person who can do it. Laundry should be a fairly standard event in your home, and your kids are going to need this skill when they grow up and leave home, so teach each family member how to do a load of darks and a load of whites, and assign a different laundry day to each of them. If necessary, complicated or stained items can be saved for a day that an adult does the wash.