Invasions can begin small and grow so gradually that, before you know it, you’re totally taken over. No, I’m not talking about people. I’m talking about teawares. They can take over your house without any warning, filling every nook and cranny. Here are some signs to watch for so you can at least manage the onslaught.

Sign 1: Teawares fill the kitchen cupboards

Where regular dishwares and cookwares would normally be, that is, in the kitchen cupboards, resides various teapots, teacups, saucers, and dessert plates. Those other items are stacked on the counter or in boxes.

Sign 2: Teawares displace books on the shelves

The kitchen cupboards are all full up with teawares, so now you start displacing the books on the shelves and replace them with the additional teawares that just seem to magically appear in your abode. The books end up in stacks in the corners yet still handy to read while you enjoy your tea.

Sign 3: Teawares cover the dining table

The cupboards and bookshelves are full, so you start just stacking those teawares on the dining table. Who eats in a dining room much anymore anyway? Everyone wants that eat-in kitchen or that open floor plan so when guests are over the cook and/or host/hostess can be in on the action with them. So, stacking the dining table high with your teawares just makes sense and uses valuable space.

Sign 4: Guests ask when you set up your shop

You’re giving a party, the guests arrive, and one of the first things out of their mouths is, “When did you set up a teawares shop?” And then they start looking for the price tags. It could take you awhile to convince them that it’s really not a shop. Some will remain unconvinced and say to you as they leave at the end of the party, “Let me know when you have a sale.”

Sign 5: A 3.5 to 4.5 Earthquake makes a big clatter

An earthquake of 3.5 magnitude is known to shake things in your home or office but otherwise may not even be felt, and a 4.5 magnitude quake will definitely rattle things. [source] Your teaware-filled house will resound with the clinking of those teawares during that earthquake. Sort of a symphoTEA!

Sign 6: You never need to wash teacups

You have so many teacups around that you never need to wash them in order to have a clean one. It works at a Mad Hatter Tea Party, so why not at your house? Just have a cuppa, set that teacup aside, get a clean cup, and have another cuppa.

Sign 7: Ditto for teapots

Once the teapot is empty, simply set it aside and grab another full teapot to continue imbibing.

Sign 8: You don’t ask for borrowed teawares to be returned

A neighbor or friend asks to borrow a teapot and/or teacups and saucers. You say sure and never bother to ask for them to be returned. And when they try to return them, you run the other way.

Sign 9: Dusting/cleaning your teawares involves an Indie 500 style pit crew

The pit crews at the Indie 500 know their assigned jobs and perform them to the utmost to help the driver get out of that pit and back on the track in the shortest time possible. Imagine them, dust rags and dishcloths in hand, making short work of dusting and washing your teawares. Like those pit crew members who change the tires, refill the engine oil and other fluids, etc., your teawares dusting crew will each have its assigned area, some dusting the items on the bookshelves, others tackling the ones stacked on the dining table, and still others collecting the used teacups and teapots left sitting around and giving them a cleaning.

So, has your house been taken over? Ours sure has.

See more of A.C. Cargill’s articles here.

© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.