With the forge, I suggest that you put your ingots into sections, putting on only the metals that are requested the most, and leaving a space for any other ingots in case a customer requests an ingot that's not already on the forge. I would suggest that you put a maximum of 5 ingots in each group, since that is the highest amount of ingots that you can use on one item (this is the shield, with 2 ingots for the frame, one for the boss, and 1 ingot for each of the 2 handles, which makes 5 ingots total).
If by 'crates', you mean the ones that you can open and close, just hold alt and spin it upside down. Then set it down upside down, and click to open it. Then you can just lift the crate and everything should be in a nice little pile.