Just a note: the method of building tables for kinds or even unique items by assigning UIDs and then assigning properties using phrases at the start of the game is just a workaround for the bugs I’ve experienced and described in this thread.
These bugs were already known and fixed for the next Inform release.
This method is therefore temporary and will probably become obsolete in time. Also, I’ve only been using Inform for a few months, so this way of doing things suits my project, but it’s probably not optimal. I think people with more experience than me would probably have better suggestions for each of the use cases in your respective projects.