Once you have access to your house, you will have access to two free trunks. By now, you've probably picked up just about everything you could get your hands on, and you may be tempted to immediately empty your inventory into them, but don’t – once you put items into the trunks, you cannot move them until they are empty. Instead, hold off until you have access to the Workshop (more on that later).

Here is the first thing you should know about storage in Critter Cove (at least at present): Each storage container represents a "page" of storage, like in a book, and you need to turn each "page" to find the trunk / wardrobe / etc. that you're looking for when cycling through them. If Page 1 of your storage is Materials, for instance, and you have put Clothing into your second chest and then more Materials in a third chest, the storage UI page order will be 1) "Materials", 2) "Clothing", 3) "More Materials".

There is currently no way to reorder these "pages" (until a potential future UI update to reorder your storage via the window) except by placing chests in the chronological order and location you want to access them, and, again, you cannot move a trunk unless it is first empty. This means that, not only can you not move a chest without changing what "page" it's on, it also means you need to have a place to empty the contents into. This can be tedious work, especially later in the game when you have more than two full chests to sort out one at a time.

While I say you shouldn't use the trunks in your house, you may use one until you have access to the Workshop - just realize that you'll be moving it later.

You will be spending a lot of time in and around the Workshop, and there are many MANY different materials used in crafting.

Once you have access to the Workshop, take your two trunks and set them up near the front doors (make sure they are aligned to your liking, as this placement will be permanent – I personally placed them between the two doorways inside, but Copperbottom sometimes gets in the way, so you may choose to place them outside the doors).

These will be your first two Materials trunks, where you will store components for crafting; I recommend renaming them Materials 1 and Materials 2 (the name won’t appear to have changed, but it has; if you cycle to the next storage page, you’ll find that it’s changed). You may now deposit your inventory if you choose – you can sort it later. You will want at least two to start with, and should add a third as soon as you get set up to make them.

To make a basic trunk, you will first need to set up your workshop to the point where you have a simple cutter (follow the robot's quest line); you will also need to learn the recipe for a small crate and the recipe for the basic trunk itself (you can find the recipes for both of these by chopping up broken ones on the island), and finally the furniture worktable (found on a cliff wall on the northeast side of the island, on a stretch of beach just north of the main beach).

Once you have those set up, make a third trunk and label it "Materials 3" or "Misc" and place it somewhere in your workshop - this should be enough to accommodate just about everything you'll need for crafting. You can put your clothes and furniture in here for now, until you have placed the storage for them (covered in the next section).

Finally, make two more trunks and place them nearest to where you set up your cooking station (I recommend you do this against the outside of the east side of the Workshop) - label these "Food 1" or "Ingredients / Seeds" and "Food 2" or "Cooked Food".

Now that your most important storage is established, you can put in the rest.

First, you'll want an "Overflow" trunk (in case you happen to be a hoarder); this will also serve as the place where you'll put things you don't want, want to sell, or want to dump on give to your villagers. As such, you'll want to place this in the town square, potentially next to Reynard's shop. Since it's located next to the food (and wardrobe, covered next), you'll be able to easily access things that are most commonly requested by villagers (food, clothes, "junk" items). It's much nicer when you don't have to run off to grab something and then lose your villager as they run off in another direction.

Now, the Workshop and town square aren't the only place that you want stuff - after all, you don't want to run to the Workshop or public to put on an outfit. It's time to organize your closet! You can put your clothes either in a wardrobe or in a trunk, and I'd recommend putting these in your house and label them "Clothes" (you may add two, if you're a fashionista). You'll also want a separate trunk for furniture (you might label it "Furniture", obviously).

You now have enough storage for just about everything, but there are some storage options you may also consider, such as a trunk right where you get off your boat on the dock - this will allow you to dump your inventory for touch-and-go resource gathering expeditions; or you might consider placing chests on islands - such as at the crab village (along with a furniture worktable for crab houses, if you want to create a crab city). You may also consider placing an ingredients trunk next to Blackwhisker's Cafe, or next to your food carts. The sky's the limit, but consider that you'll have to flip back a lot of pages of storage to get to your main storage - try to avoid making your storage "book" into a novel.

1 – Trunk in workshop, labeled “Materials 1” – here you will place your most basic / used materials (rocks, metal, wood planks, fibers, resin, oil, rubber, glass, etc.)

2 – Trunk in workshop, labeled “Materials 2” – here you will place fabricated materials (metal plates, blades, beams, gears, springs, wires, thread, wooden/metal frames, etc.)

Once you have the furniture worktable and the blueprint for trunks, you can expand your storage. I would recommend setting up your storage in the following order:

3 – Trunk in workshop, labeled “Materials 3” or “Misc” – here you will place items that you’ve found that are used in crafting (broken motors, furnaces, cooking pots, treadmills, electronics, mechanical parts, shells, etc.)
NOTE: you may mix and match between these three trunks according to convenience.

4 – Trunk outside workshop, next to cooking station, labeled “Food 1” or “Ingredients / Seeds” – here you will put your crops (berries, meat, vegetables, etc.) and their seeds, as well as items used in cooking (such as flour, sugar, salt, wonky sauce, and cans for soda). You may also opt to put fibers here for convenience. Since Pokee says to plant your garden next to the workshop, this will be the optimal place for storing what you grow.

5 – Trunk outside workshop next to Food 1, labeled “Food 2” or “Cooked Foods” – here you will put your cooked foods for your own consumption, giving to villagers, or restocking your shops.

6 – Trunk in town center, near Reynard’s, labeled “Overflow” or “Junk” – you’ll put stuff here that you intend to either sell (I recommend selling surfboards, as they are worth a lot, are plentiful, and aren’t used for much), give to villagers, or don’t know what to do with.

7 – Wardrobe in player’s house labeled “Clothes” – this is where you’ll put your clothes, as well as clothes for your villagers (some of these will inevitably end up in your overflow trunk, unless you place a second wardrobe).

8 – Trunk / Side table in player's house labeled "Furniture” or “Misc” – you’ll put your furniture and decorations here.

9 (Optional) – Trunk on dock next to your boat – you can empty your inventory in here for touch-and-go resource gathering trips, and have quick access to your storage without having to run to the workshop.
10+ – Trunks in key areas for easy access (particularly near Blackwhisker’s Café, on the beaches, next to the crab village and on other islands, etc.)

The reason I’ve set things up this way is because the trunks are located closest to areas next to where you’ll need the items inside them, and your Overflow trunk in the center of town is closest to the “pages” of storage that you’ll need most often for your villagers. Hopefully this will help you avoid running out of space and having to reorganize your chests one by one like I had to with my first setup (at least until it’s possible to reorder your storage in the storage UI).