I have fabric beyond my lifetime expectancy now, and yet I buy more. I've been building my collections for over thirty years. It is important to keep it out of the sun, because sunlight damages fabric - as Feathers pointed out. I store fabric on shelves and in rubber maid tubs and on the sewing room floor... The floor is where fabric for current project winds up. Shelves are better than the tubs, because I tend to forget about fabric in the tubs.