Firstly you're not dumb, this is a new mod and experience for you! I haven't exactly made a guide outlining every change I've made 😅
I have actually removed the generic 'storage' research, and made it so that each respective research unlocks their own item specific storage - eg research cooking to unlock the food store, metallurgy to unlock ore/metal storage.
It might be a bit more of a roundabout method, but I thought the idea of specifically researching boxes to put stuff in was silly.
Hope that helps!