We went from a house of 2 adults to 7 adults and kept running out of drinking glasses. This solved the problem.
We were running the dishwasher daily but still kept running out of glasses.
We have house guests for the next few months while they are in the midst of a move so everything in the house needed to scale by 3.5 x and quickly.
We didn't have any issues with plates or bowls but we kept running short on drinking glasses.
The containment measure we implemented was using plastic disposable cups while we came up with a root cause and a solution.
Root cause: If you didn't know which glass was yours you just grabbed another one.
My wife K. and I have specific areas of the house we spend most of our individual time (Ex: my office, her craft area) and overlap in the common areas (Ex: dining room, kitchen etc).
When there were only 2 of us it was simple to track our respective glasses.
When the common areas started including 5 other people, if I set my glass down turned around and came back there might be two identical glasses sitting there.
With the flu season in full swing the default option was to get a new glass if you weren't 100% sure which was yours.
We wanted to implement a short term solution with minimal cognitive investment.
We used KISS principles in deciding the best way to label the glass. At first we tried a sharpie marker but were concerned with the premenance of it and opted for the dry-erase one instead.
It can rub off over the course of a day however: it doesn't stain, it comes off in the dishwasher and it can be re-applied at any point.
When you get a glass in the morning you just take the dry-erase marker off the refrigerator and write your name on it. It's now yours for the day and I now know it's not mine.
It's a simple process with a low barrier to entry and the only thing you need to remember is your name. As long as your not drinking a lot of alcohol in your glass, this should work just fine for anyone over the age of 6.
