A couple of years ago, we wrote about wine and spirits writer Anthony Giglio’s inspired practice of writing the name of each guest on his/her wine glass to cut down on “lost” glasses (and the attendant OMG-there-aren’t-enough-glasses stress). Anthony uses a china marker, a wax or grease pencil that writes perfectly on glass or china and washes away in the dishwasher.  He recommends Phano China Markers and often gives them as house gifts when he’s a guest at a dinner party (along with a bottle or two of wine). A box of twelve (6 to 12 swell house gifts) costs under $6!

We’ve since discovered that there are other options probably already on hand in your home:

Sharpies work just fine (we tested one on a jelly glass), as do kid’s nonpermanent markers, though you’ll need scrub the name off with some Windex. Dry erase markers are even easier to remove.

The marked glasses also serve as a rather covert and elegant name tag for guests that forget names when they’re introduced.