That's a great idea. You could spray paint to match decor.

I just had to come back to say that these are so clever. I especially love the Advent calendar!

I give mine to a local scout troop, they make crafty things with them

In Feb. when I take my baskets of things to Sugar Creek Elem. School for their Fun Fair I will take a bag of empty spools and give them to the pre-school teachers and a bag of labels and tell the to give them to a first grade teacher..

I keep one on my cast iron thread holder. When I'm sewing with thread on cones, they sometimes wobble. I place an empty spool on the spool holder inside of the cone, to help stabilize it.

I had an accumulation of wooden spools that belonged to my grandmother. I made a wreath for my late mother using empty spools and some still had thread on them She loved it because it contained so much of what her mother had.

I see old wooden ones for sale on eBay. Perhaps you could sell yours, too. Probably couldn't get much for them, though. How about donating them to a pre-school? Some of those teachers are very creative and might want them.

if you have embroidery you can use them to put the thread around and take the wrapper that shows the color and tape to the end of the spool

I do embroidery work and use them for putting my embroidery floss on.

I use the tall plastic ones and place in the bottom of ceramic planters to place my seasonal flower pots on top of. This helps elevate the seasonal plant in the ceramic pot.