Hi, thanks for tackling this!
Shouldn't the order by name already be enough such that we don't need

item = Item.find_by_name(household.id, name)
        if not item:
            item = Item.find_name_starts_with(household.id, name)

Since with order by the shortest names are listed first, which, if an exact name exists, is always that?

Yes, you're right. This was redundant.