- Add a column in the data field for barrels & cauldrons for last used
- Whenever you load all these, startup for exmaple do a check on last used, if its not been used in X time, then delete it.
From a server with half a million players thats been running 14 years, this data gets stale very quickly, players come and go, people test brewing and never use it ever again..
In my database now, I have 1482 barrels and 221 cauldrons. A lot of those will never be used, so if there is any background service ticking these to update them, its a waste of resources.
Last used could be moving items in/out