Managing Supplies
Your Supply Stash
Your GlueStick Supply Stash provides a digital record of all the supplies you have in your home. Maintaining your Supply Stash allows GlueStick to recommend projects that your family can do right now, ensuring your kids can get creating with minimal delays and less expense.
Access your supply stash by clicking or tapping the Stash icon in the menu.
Adding Supplies to your Stash
To add a new supply to your stash, click the + Add Supply button. The New Supply form includes the following fields:
Supply Type - (required) the supply type or category of this supply. Supply Type is used to group supplies together and match stashed supplies to project supplies. Example supply types include glue sticks, beads, paper, plastic cups, and more. The list of supply types is limited to the supply types used by projects featured in the GlueStick app. For example, you will not find Paint Thinner as a supply type because GlueStick does not feature any projects that use harsh, potentially dangerous chemicals.
Color - (optional) the color of this stashed supply. If your stashed supply includes multiple colors like a pack of many different colored rhinestones, feel free to leave this field blank. Note: Not all supply types have a color field. For example, scissors and paint brushes do not ask families to keep track of color. The list of available colors is intentionally kept small to facilitate matching user supplies to project supplies. It is not possible to add custom supply colors at this time.
Size - (optional) the size of this stashed supply. For example, if you have 12”x12” scrapbooking paper, you could enter 12”x12” in this field. Similarly, you could track Large rocks separately from Small rocks. This field is very flexible, so use it however it makes sense for your family. Note: Not all supply types have a size field. For example, scissors do not ask families to track size.
Quantity on Hand - (required) how much or how many of a particular supply you have in your stash. This can be measured specifically or generically. See below for more on managing supply quantities.
Location - (optional) a short note about where your family stores this supply so it can be easily found during set up and put away again when you’re done.
Managing Supply Quantity and Quantity Units
GlueStick allows families to track supply quantity generically or specifically. This provides the flexibility to manage supplies in a way that best fits your family’s personal organizational style. We don’t know many people who’d enjoy counting exactly how many green pony beads you have on hand, but we also know sometimes it’s really important to know you have exactly three glass jars left or are down to your last egg carton.
The Quantity on hand field captures this nuance by allowing families to choose a generic quantity from the following list
A lot
Enough for a few projects
Running low
All out
Or, users can chose “A specific amount.” If “A specific amount” is chosen, users can enter the numeric amount and the quantity unit. A default quantity unit is provided based on the Supply Type chosen, but can be overwritten for any given supply. This is important for supplies like glue. Most projects expect you have a bottle hanging around and will only use a few dollops. For these projects, saying you have 1 bottle is enough. Other projects, like a recipe for slime, may require you to measure glue by the cup, tablespoon, or ounce. If you’d prefer to track your supply in one of these measurements, just override the default quantity unit.
When in doubt, just keep the default quantity unit. Our supply matching algorithm will categorize the supply as a likely match no matter what the quantity units say.
Pro tip about pluralization: It can be really tempting to update the pluralization of the quantity unit. For example, changing the quantity units in the screenshot from rubber band to Rubber Bands would make it more grammatically correct. The interface will take care of determining the. correct pluralization of all units displayed while you’re busy making. We recommend keeping quantity unit in the singular form whenever possible.
Alternate Supply Suggestions
GlueStick attempts to match the supplies a project needs to supplies in your user supply stash based on their supply type, color, size, and quantity.
All GlueStick projects have a list of required supplies and an optional list of alternative supplies that can be substituted. For example, when making a paper plate turtle, the turtle’s paper plate shell may be colored with crayons, markers, paints or colored pencils. The Project Supply list will tell you the recommended supply and whether or not a match was found in your user Supply Stash.
A match may be a perfect or approximate match.
A perfect match will show a checkmark on a green background. A perfect match means GlueStick feels confident this supply is in your user stash and you can start any steps that require this supply immediately.
An approximate match means GlueStick thinks you have the supply or a viable alternative in your stash, but we can’t tell for sure. An approximate match is common if the color, size, or quantity of the supply in your user stash doesn’t match the requirements of the project. For example, if you have markers, but do not specifically say you have a green marker, the paper plate turtle will indicate an approximate supply match my showing a yellow swap symbol. GlueStick will list up to three viable stashed supplies that you may be able to swap in to complete this project.
Missing supplies are indicated by a red warning sign. If this is in error, you may tap the supply card to adjust the stashed quantity of this supply.
Contact Us
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