I have run out of stuff around the settlement I want to build up to scrap an there are a lot of things I need. So what is the best way to get them? Things like wood, ceramic, aluminum and steel are what I need most mainly ceramic.

Shipment glitch, look it up.

Well for me it's fun to go exploring & gather materials. Just tag the items you want. Also the scrapper perk may help.

ceramic was always a pain in the ass for me but it is pretty common if you have it tagged and steel is pretty common and light weight in the form of cans. now i have to deal with finding wood to repair the walls at the castle

best way to gather materials is

1- strip a settlement bear. Build a Scrapper station, and assign a settler to it.
2- to the same thing for the next settlement, then link the two together. On and on until every settlement is stripped bare and linked.
3- put on your power armor (++ carrying weight) and hit FACTORIES. Factories, depending on type, have loads of what you need, cement, aluminium, steel etc. Collect and then put into your workbench (which, since all your workbenches are now connected, means this stuff is available to every settlement).
4- don't forget to grab scrap from the Prydwen/RailroadHQ/Institute too. Well, as long as they aren't your enemy. Strip them clean lol

what you WILL find you need loads of is:

1- Glue. If you see glue, grab it. If you can "cook" up Vegetable Starch, do that too, cos Glue.
2- Aluminium - if you see aluminium cans etc grab them. Never pass them up
3- Ceramics - used in your electrical stuff. All those coffee mugs you've been overlooking? grab them
4- Steel. Most metal stuff contains steel, and you'll run out of this quick when building walls and fences, even wooden ones. You'll hardly ever run out of wood (once you've stripped every settlement) but steel you can never get enough of.

For ceramics, yes, coffee mugs and ash trays. I raided one ex cafeteria just to be able to build defense turrets