Venting

So, Peter and I are having a dinner party this weekend as an excuse to break out the formal china. Of course, that meant I had to finally take all the stickers off everything and wash the dishes. I knew it was going to take a while, but I really didn't expect it to take as long as it did. I spent 4 hours today, mostly fighting with the stupid stickers. To give you and idea of how much I had to clean - 5 piece place settings for 12, salt and pepper shaker, 2 veg dishes, gravy boat and saucer, creamer, sugar. Over the course of the four hours, several things came to mind.

1. Why do they put the stickers on the INSIDE of the coffee cups?
2. Is there some reason they use the type of glue that refuses to allow the sticker to come off in less than 45 pieces?
3. Why do all 5 pieces of the thing sold as a set each need a sticker?

Plus, I broke one of the coffee mugs and had to order a new one. That happened early on, so I was paranoid and highly stressed for the remainder.

A piece of advice to someone who has a similarly large amount of china to clean - do it a bit at a time and don't try and do it all at once. You'll get too frustrated.