For me, I memorized the 5 basic scale shapes. I used this as a foundation to learn the other scales.

For chords, the shapes that the open E, A and D chord use will cover just about everything. As up move these chords up the fretboard into their barre chord shape you can cover the whole neck of the guitar. From this basis you can work on variations: minor, 7th, etc. This is how memorizing chords worked for me.