How about this (and I completely agree with the storage problem when it comes to crafting/harvesting) - have an inventory completely dedicated to harvested items/crafting mats. Other mmorpgs have this feature - FFXIV ARR should not be an exception to the rule. The inventory is a part of your character's "bag". If the shards/crystals/clusters have their neat little space, why leave the harvested items/crafting mats out of the loop? Then that leaves having to deal with the retainers out of the picture. However, the retainers should also have this feature since they, too, have a shard/crystal/cluster inventory