... to be sad about the egg cup.

[WifeOfMacbeth]

Spouse is a bit short-sighted and also a bit clumsy.

He's away today and when I ate a boiled egg for breakfast I noticed that one of the two egg cups is badly chipped and cracked. I felt so fed up of all the chipped crockery that just gets put back in the cupboard, so I threw it away.

But replacing stuff is also hard work. Choosing things online - there are just hundreds and thousands of different egg cups - or going off shopping in the city for replacement.. The local shops won't have much.

It's the really tiny things that can feel dispiriting. I hate living in a house full of old broken stuff but I also hate the energy involved in doing replacing. (It would be so much easier to be totally oblivious to the increasing decay and destruction like Spouse, but it's another boring aspect of 'wifework' to be the one who ends up noticing and doing such chores.)

The quest for two matching unchipped egg cups begins.

I thought you were going to say it was a treasured egg cup, hand made by a deceased relative, or hand painted by your toddler 20 years ago or something.
Honestly, it’s really not that big a deal.
However, I think this is more a reflection on how you feel about your spouse, and his attitude to household chores, than anything.

That eggcup is carrying a heavy load. A whole marriage-worth of disappointment crammed in!

Realistically, buying an egg cup is unbelievably straightforward. I don't think this is really about the eggcup!

(Also, eggcups really don't need to match!)

‘Hi DH, the egg cups were badly chipped so I’ve chucked them. Could you sort for Santa to bring us a new set for Christmas?’

It sounds like you need to turn that frown upside down OP!

What a wonderful opportunity for some Swedish death cleaning or a clear out based on the “sparks joy” principle.

It can be absolutely liberating to have a good clear out, why do you think the Spring Clean is a thing? After winter everyone needs to have a cathartic refresh of their physical life.

Many of your old and broken things may be able to be repurposed - in my house, an old ceramic egg cups would have been smashed up and used at the bottom of a flower pot to help with drainage.

Plan a day at a local craft fair in the spring, or join aa pottery class and make your own— don’t just buy a meaningless replacement online.

Turn your trivial chores into opportunities, and your heart will learn happiness and contentment

In the last week I've broken a mug, a glass and two baubles. Stuff gets dropped. If it's smashed it's thrown out, if it's just chipped or can be mended that happens.

Not sure what the big deal is about a chipped egg cup or why it's such a task to replace.

It's an egg cup carrying a lot of symbolic weight clearly. The egg cup that broke the camel's back.

I don’t feel like the eggcup is the real issue here! Have you a lot of other stress and upset in your life at the moment?

But replacing stuff is also hard work. Choosing things online - there are just hundreds and thousands of different egg cups - or going off shopping in the city for replacement.. The local shops won't have much.

Things are only as difficult as you make them. I can't imagine putting that much thought into eggcups. Search Amazon for eggcups, pick two. I wouldn't even go to a second page of search results. I certainly wouldn't make a special trip to the city for something that's probably no more than £2 each!

I would just keep using it until it broke tbh, it's not like a mug which you could argue would be unhygienic to keep using (although most of mine have some chips, I do have a handful of undamaged ones for guests). Dishwashers seem to always chip crockery, so I'd be replacing stuff every other week. If you get your food shop delivered, you could probably add on a couple of inexpensive egg cups to your next order.

I wandered around an antiques market and got a set of cut glass eggcups for a tenner so I will feel extra fancy eating my eggs

It's just the nature of things that everything degrades and breaks eventually. If it's so cracked and broken it's unusable then I'd just throw whatever egg cup offerings are available at the supermarket at my next shopping trip. These small things don't need to be just right - just functional so don't let it take up too much head space. Down that road madness lies.

Buy 4 that way you won't have to replace again anytime soon as have spares.

Or buy metal wire ones like this

Good grief. If you choose to throw out a still perfectly functional egg cup then you don't really get to moan about all the hard thinking you apparently need to do to replace it.

https://amzn.eu/d/418HjD2

Job done.

I think there are deeper issues that you need to address.

4 plain white ceramic egg cups are £16 on Amazon. There are some cute ones for a bit more. Seems a big overreaction. Stainless Steel are about £10 for 4 and hard to damage. This seems like an overreaction unless they were super sentimental...

You are massively over reacting about an egg cup. They are unbelievably cheap and sold everywhere.

I don't think it's all about the egg cup...

I think I'm feeling similar this morning but my 'wife work' has been spending an hour going around different places looking for a bag of gritting salt because our front path is like an ice rink and our little girl slipped this morning. Of course DH doesn't care one jot, thinks I'm making a fuss over nothing and if the postie breaks his leg delivering our mail then it's his own fault.
The total imbalance of thought we have on these small matters makes me seethe sometimes!

Ask him to buy a new egg cup?

I think you need a marriage counsellor more than you need new egg cups .

It's entropy, man!

Seriously though you need to decide whether and how much you're bothered by stuff like this.

One person might see chipped and damaged as well loved with history, whilst another might see it as scruffy and neglected. Which one are you?

One question I ask myself is whether anyone else in the house cares about The Thing. Usually they don't! Sometimes this means I can mentally let it go, and sometimes it means that if I want the thing doing I need to own it and do it myself for my own satisfaction.
It also means I'm not expecting anyone else to notice things they just don't see or care about.

YANBU I hate it - all my pasta dishes are chipped and i'm fed up of replacing them, cracked egg cups, cups, chipped glasses. Sick of replacing wine glasses DH is too heavy handed to wash properly. I even started buying 2 extra settings at 1 point so that if one or two got chipped or broken I would have extra - yet i'm still here with cupboards of unmatching crockery! Its so bloody annoying! He is happy to just use whats there.

I found these:

Green Glass Easter Egg Cup for Soft or Hard Boiled Egg Holder - Set of 4 Egg Holders for Breakfast Brunch, Kitchenware, Easter Decoration Egg Cup for Spring Home Party tableware Decor Favors : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

or these

RADICALn marble Egg Cups Green Set of 2 Handmade Egg Container for Kitchen Table - Egg Holder For Boiled Eggs - Hard Boiled Egg Storage Kitchen Gadgets : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

Depending on what sort of thing you are looking for

think this sums it up nicely. It's a heavy burden when only one in the partnership 'sees' and deals with this stuff.

The egg cup which broke the OP's back...

I'd keep the chipped one as long as possible but I always get sentimentally attached to old broken stuff!

I think it could be a fun thing buying egg cups if you want to get rid of the old one? I've just had a quick look and there's some really nice ones - try Floral Hand Printed Stoneware Egg Cups - Pack of Six - By Nicola Spring
Or loads on Etsy. So many, I wouldn't overthink it, just go for the first ones you like and can afford.

Yep it's the accumulation of everything that makes the OP feel this way, I've been there, it's the hopelessness you feel.

Acceptance is the first step towards change either of the situation or our reaction/approach to it. Difficult to put into practice though.