I usually create a 3x3xn underground tunnel and put chests on the side. It's always underground because it's easy to expand and I usually make it as early as possible, together with the cellar. The chests are organized depending on the materials they contain, I always use the same logic so I don't need signs to remember which chest is which (for example, first on the right is always dirt, above it stones, then stone blocks, next column wood blocks, then wood derivates, wood items, minerals, clay, etc...). When I build specialized rooms I end up moving the material or part of it there (for example a forge). After a while the initial storage chests are not enough so I end up creating some sort of backroom where I dump excess materials, I don't mind every once in a while to move items from the secondary storage to the main one, the idea of the main storage is to have all of the items easily available, so that I can build stuff without searching.