Layout objects are pretty glitchy from what I remember, they especially can't be used for scrolling games I think. I'm pretty surprised about the VRAM issue though, that is a pretty serious bug.
Your best bet for now is the layer inheritance, it's described lightly here: http://www.scirra.com/forum/inventory-system_topic54067.html
And hey, waiting only 1 or 2 days is a pretty short time for a reply. We understand when things are urgent but people here will often work on example cap files or try to see what they can do to help before replying. Or sometimes, if someone doesn't have time to help right now they take note and get back to it when they can.