I store my fabric in plastic containers, fabric containers, sitting on shelving, in doctor bags, in dresser drawers and in a storage unit (like a bookcase with doors on it). I like the fabric containers, but I can't see what's inside. There is a place on the outside to slide a piece of paper with the name of what is inside into, but I've never done that. I think I should do that today. I have 12 of them. They are quite big and I have them stacked and have to go through each of them to find the one I need. I must be the laziest person alive! It would take 5 minutes to fix this problem. But I feel the most comfortable with my fabric stored in the fabric containers. They are hard and stand about 6" tall. I bought them from Fons and Porter. Excellent quality.

I use the large plastic storage shelves in my sewing room. My fabric is ruler folded and stacked by color. Scraps are in large plastic laundry hampers with holes in the sides. Fat quarters are boxed in plastic shoe boxes, by color, and stacked under my quilting table.

I believe it's only the soft plastic bags that outgas formaldehyde; the hard plastic bins are okay. Some people drill holes in the plastic bins to allow for air flow. I don't do that and have not encountered any problems so far (years). The one thing you do *not* want to do is store fabric in a closed container with moisture; that will cause mold.

My dream way of fabric storage is a large walk in closet with adjustable shelving from floor to ceiling on all walls. Then have my fabric folded so I can see everything on the shelf. Still a work in progress....

I, too, live on Long Island and my quilt room is in the full, finished basement. I keep a dehumidifier going constantly...all my fabrics are stored on Ikea Billy Bookcases and Expedit shelving system with no problems. BTW, Tashana, where on the island do you live? Lynnie and I are trying to get a group of L.I. board members together for maybe a bit of a luncheon. Lynnie is in Islip, I'm in Mastic Beach.

I love all your ideas and suggestions and I keep meaning to sort/tidy my fabrics before I go mad in yet another lqs or at a quilt show!!!!!

Youve inspired me, thank you,

What is folding on 6 X 24 ruler. Never heard of it

Here's a Youtube video on folding fabric over a ruler:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkTlaMqRlwo

I have two cabinets with doors. Inside one cabinet are shelves that I put my plastic shoeboxes (without) lids sometimes I need to stack the shoe boxes. One cabinet has the louvered (spelling?) doors and two large drawers at the bottom. My fabric is hidden from sunlight and dust and can breathe because no lid on shoe boxes and my doors never close completely (too much stuff in it). I got my cabinets from JC Penney's catalog in the bathroom section (this was 4 years ago). My scraps go into a big plastic tub under my cutting table, then sorted in large ziploc bags according to seasons, color, designer etc. Hope we given you lots of ideas!

Never store fabric in cardboard boxes as it will stain your fabric and the stain is then hard to wash out. When I moved, that's what I did. Lesson learned.