I folded mine around the 8 1/2" ruler, then stored it standing up, without any boards to support it. As long as there is enough fabric it will stand up fine - and there's always enough fabric! I could store much more when I had it in horizontal stacks, because my shelves are higher than the height of the folded fabric - but I can get to it much easier this way.

There is always a trade off!
U

If I had the room I would store my fabric standing up as I think it would be easier to get to. I have my in plastic drawers I purchased from Walmart. Each drawer holds a different color of fabric. But no matter how much fabric I have I never have the right color so need to get more!

Mine is folded around rulers -- it would cost way too much to buy the boards to wrap it. If my shelf allowed, I would store it standing up. However, I have it stacked (everywhere) :).

I sold all my boards and just have folded fabric. The boards took up too much extra space on the shelves.

Debbie

I have some of mine piled up after being folded using the ruler method, but I also have it folded slightly smaller and then piled using a collapsible fabric basket from the dollar store on end. I can still see what colors I have, but I can also pull out each individual basket to make my selection and then it slides right back in place on the shelf.

The larger pieces of fabric I stand up. This is because I have trouble with my ribs due to a car accident and I don't have to do so much lifting to get the fabric I want. I adjusted the shelves on a bookcase to be the right height. Fat quarter are in drawers so that I can see the edge of each. Anything bigger than a FQ but smaller than 1 1/2 yd. is flat on a short shelf.

Forgot to say my boards were foam core so they were thicker than comic boards - that's why they took up so much space.

I had my fabric on boards and then switched to ruler folded. I do agree that vertical on boards is easier to get to a particular fabric - but only if your shelves are not very deep. My problem was that I bought deep cabinets (one is 18 in. deep and the other is 23 inches deep), so that I could also keep bins of UFO projects in the cabinet. My husband wanted everything hidden behind doors/drawers since my main sewing room is also the living room. with my fabric vertical on boards I had to have several layers on 1 shelf - eliminating the 'ease' of access. Also my shelves could not be adjusted evenly so that all stood exactly vertical. If I arranged them with enough room for true vertical usage then I actually did not have room for one of my shelves.

Because my cabinets are deep flat ruler fold is a more econmical use of space.

"No cost boards".....I took the very thin boxes that coke comes in and cut "boards" out of them. It's just enough support to hold up the fabric, but doesn't add a lot of bulk. I cut the boards all the same width so I can tell how much of each fabric I have by how many times the fabric wraps around the board. Works great, is basically free, and a great way to recycle trash.