I have been sewing and quilting since I was 13. I started with 3-4 file boxes of fabric (clothing to sew plus scraps). My first 2 quilts were mostly from fabric scraps, the first took 5 yr and was all hand pieced both sides and quilted. Since then, I mostly just made simple quilts for children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews as they arrived, and table cloths, curtains and such, as needed. I've done more complicated quilts in the past 10 years or so, so that's when the fabric accumulation really started. I have about 10 clear storage boxes with fabric, plus more in baskets and piles. One box is cat fabric. i have a bag of music fabric and another of Christmas fabric. The rest I try to sort by color or by project, but it's not all sorted. Some is in my sewing room in the basement, but I hadn't been able to climb stairs, so more recent fabric is in the garage. My sewing machine is on the dining room table right now with a few piles nearby.
Someone mentioned collape of the floor-I haven't had that, but I've had piles collapse, and basement floods. I had to wash everything in baskets on the floor and piles that collapsed onto the floor. So now, everything on the floor is in plastic bins. Also have 2 small chests of patterns, mostly clothing, but some quilting or other projects.
Don't even ask about quilting magazines. They're mostly disorganized in magazine boxes. DH wants me to scan the parts I want and discard the magazines. It would probably be easier to find the patterns that way, but I still like looking through the magazines.