Stone chests and civs not picking up stuff out of them

I have tried using wooden crates and stone chests to store items, but sometimes they just will not pick up stuff from the crates and chests to craft stuff, and if you wait a while they will pick it up, altough it may take a few ingame days, and in the mean time they will restock and carry stuff, what can I do about this?
For example, my smith cannot craft a anvil while I have all the materials in chests,
when I try to build a road wich needs wood wich I have in chests, they wont get it from chests they
wait until it is on the ground, from traders or trees
thank you.