The Idea

A major problem with the UI as it is, as I see it, is that you cannot know what you've got in storage exactly when you use the workbench, reloading bench, and campfire. So you have to rush off to check your storage, and then back to the crafting station, and so on. There's a lot of unnecessary back and forth. But what if you didn't need to?

The Execution

A script would keep track of all player owned goods by running a check whenever the player opens a player-owned container. A list of all the items a player has stored will be kept that way. This list will then show what items you have in storage when using the workbench, reloading bench, and campfire.

Eexample:

Super Stimpack Ingredients...

Stimpack (13/1) [40]
Mutfruit (0/1) [13]
Nuka-Cola (0/1) [8]
Leather Belt (0/1) [2]

Basically, the [numbers] are an indicator of how many you have in storage. So if you have one chest or some chests with an amount of stimpacks that equals 40, the workbench will show [40]. That way you know what you have in storage.

Possible Features

Optionally, the mod could change the recipe list on the left, so that if you have enough items to make the recipe, but some or all of the items are in storage, then the name could have (From Stores) or similar appended to it, or perhaps it could be coloured differently, but I don't know how possible that is (if at all).

Why not just make it so the workbench/recipes/etc take items from the container instead of the PC's inventory? You could do that with specific containers, which would be easy enough if you implement it in an auto-sorter routine where using the bench automatically pulls all the crafting ingredients from your storage container, lets you craft, then when you close it all those crafting components (and any you were already carrying) get sorted back into your crafting storage container.

Either or, really. Whatever works. Via that system, would I be able to mark containers in some way, so that I could select which containers I could use? That way, I could keep everything sorted nicely as I do now; with parts in one container, recipe ingredients in another, and so on.

i really like that as it's annoying to have to remember if u have everything for crafting yet or not ;p

I like this idea, but maybe it is possible to take it further and actually be able to USE the items in storage, without requiring the player to go to the storage container and take stuff out? Not sure if you can do that for the player (though I know NPCs can use items that are located in containers) though.