A sorting function is sorely needed and its supposed to be coming with patch 2.1

As for inventory space, yeah, I understand your pain (leveling all crafts at the same time too) and getting additional retainers would be awesome, however, we can always just stop being pack rats. I know that in the near future I'll be getting rid of the NQ version of materials that can be easily gathered through Botany and Mining (except those that are constantly used even in higher level recipees). I'll only focus on stocking up materials that can only be obtained directly from mobs.

EDIT: When they eventually add housing for individual players (which unfortunately is still far off) I hope they give us more storage space.