I'm fairly new at the quilting hobby (started in fall of 2010) and because I have two homes, it's a challenge to adapt each setting in a way that works for me. We spend half the year in CO and half the year in TX. What is working for me right now is to use the clear zippered containers that I recycle from other things I have bought, such as curtains, bed linens, blankets, etc. I try to put the pattern with the chosen fabric into one of these. Then I can put them in drawers or on shelves and easily pull them out when I am ready to work on them. For random materials that I have not a particular project in mind, I group them together by fabric type and color.