Methods and a system for managing database usage. The methods and system include receiving a request to create a table, determining the table is an empty table, and storing a pseudo-table in a data store in response to determining the table is empty. The pseudo-table may be a database view. Metadata related to a table may be stored in the pseudo-table to describe characteristics of the table. The pseudo-table occupies less space than a corresponding empty table. The system may implement the methods in middleware transparent to the applications.