Saw these for sale in Hobbycraft...

[rosebud5678]

Literally couldn't believe my eyes...who pays to buy egg cartons?? If you're interested, they also had cardboard tubes and bags of garden stones...

I guess if you don't eat eggs but want the cartons, but it's still bonkers. My favourite pointless craft items are the toilet tube rolls.

I used to work for HobbyCraft...that's not even the start of the pointless items 😂 Big sellers though 🤷🏼‍♀️

My DM and I were discussing whether pipe cleaners had any other use rather than craft these days.

Garden stones.. guessing the big smooth ones for painting? Not everyone has those in the garden.

My dd is allergic to eggs. If school were doing an egg carton craft ones that hadn't been in contact with eggs would be handy for kids like her.

Pipe cleaners are popular with our cats!

Vegans and eggphobes

When DS’s school informed us they were painting stones and please could he have one tomorrow I would happily have bought one! We don’t have anything remotely right in the garden and I had to go for a 30 minute after bedtime walk to find one (DSs get in from CM at 6pm in normal times so I couldn’t even take him with me!).

Good point @SlipperSwan, I guess an ethical vegan might not want to support the industry by buying eggs even if they don’t eat them?

Pipe cleaners are good for cleaning the new metal straws you get now.

I don't eat eggs...but I have plenty of Family/ friends/neighbours that do - so I'd be cadging them off them! PLUS I'd want them 'attached' most of the time.

The only people I can see having any kind of desire for these are the parents of kids with egg allergies, but even then I'd have thought a good spray with Dettol spray & allowed to dry would be fine (it's surface safe), but I'm only assuming that would be enough for the kids with allergies, I don't know for sure?!

@Shinygoldbauble. Would that be ok for your DD or not?

My dd swells up on contact with even tiny amounts of raw egg.
I wouldn't take the risk.

Thing is, it does seem ridiculous, but what if you didn’t have egg boxes just lying around when you needed them for whatever artistic marvel you were creating? There is an egg box in my fridge (this being MN, I’ll just add that yes, I know eggs don’t necessarily need to be refrigerated, and yes, they are organic and free range) but it’s being used as a container for actual eggs.

Regarding the cardboard tubes, we are not allowed to use toilet roll tubes for craft in Brownies.

@rosebud5678 - I don't think I really want to know the answer but feel compelled to ask... Which bit of your cats do you use pipe cleaners on?

Eggs don't always come in cardboard boxes these days. Sometime they are plastic and not so good for craft. Although cardboard is becoming more common again.

You can always find little boxes and tubes and all sorts in the home, for craft work, Peoples bins are usually full of such things. Some people will go and buy anything, instead of using their imaginations.

People who have hens buy egg boxes. I’ve had to buy loads over the years.

I have a friend who at Easter, makes presents of boxes like that but she does them up in a vintage style and fills them with chocolate eggs. Quite cute actually.

Sorry just realised they’re cut up egg boxes.

I'm a vegan so if dd was younger and wanted to make eg a model dragon then I'd buy egg boxes from a craft shop. Not ones that had already been cut up though.

I’m a science technician in a school, I actually use pipe cleaners to clean delivery tubes, (glass tubing in rubber bungs that go into test tubes or flasks.) They can get a bit sooty. I always have a little chuckle to myself that I’m using pipe cleaners to... clean pipes!

Pipecleaners, where can I get pipecleaners? Would be perfect for cleaning out clogged impellers in aquarium pumps. Lead me to the pipecleaners!

I have a friend who has used pipe cleaners for the nose bit in her face masks she has been making, going to raid dd's old craft box to see if we have any.

Pipe cleaners are great for lots of things. In our house they are mainly used for cleaning things, but dd does occasionally need one for crafty stuff.

I have a bag of about 1000 ordinary white ones. I think it cost about a pound.

@corythatwas Pound Store in the crafts/stationery aisle I make up craft kits for ill children and often include pipe cleaners in the kits