Info
Organization is a very important habit to get into in Minecraft. Organization helps with finding things quickly and easily, especially later in the game when you have collected a lot of materials. It takes a long time to find what you need because it is cluttered up in chests. This tutorial is geared more towards people that prefer to store items in specific categories.
Storage
Early on in the game, you find that one double chest will be able to fit most of your items, carrying most of your wood, weapons, and tools. Be that as it may, to progress further in the game, you will eventually need to make storage rooms with categorized chests to store items. Chests are one of the most important blocks in the game. Here are the basic steps for organizing everything into a good sense of order.
- Make at the very least 10 or 12 double chests.
- Since trapped chests don`t connect to double chests, you can alternate between normal and trapped chests to save a lot of space.
- Build a large room for the chests. If you are tight on space, you can embed some chests into the floor or make chest "shelves". Note that it is possible to stack chests directly on top of one another.
- If you are not tight on space, you may want to place signs or item frames with the item you will place in the chest next to, above, or on the chests for easy categorization. To place an sign or item frame on a chest, place the sign or item frame while sneaking.
For people that just started playing, here are some tips:
- Put your chests in a room, not out in the open.
- Place chests with valuables like iron, gold, and diamond, or rare things like saddles, glowstone, and enchanted items, in special, impenetrable places.
- Don`t make conspicuous rooms for rare items in multiplayer.
- Group items together inside chests (don`t put things in at random).
- If need be, creeper proof your storage facility with obsidian, layers of dirt, etc. Make it as sturdy as possible! Don`t forget to light up the room so mobs can`t spawn inside.
- Cats can jump onto chests and prevent the player from using it. Don`t bring your pets in!
- If you have a lot of iron and you want to save space, craft iron ingots into iron blocks (9 ingots = 1 block) for more compact storage. This also applies to gold, lapis lazuli, redstone, emeralds, diamonds, and coal. Don`t craft nether quartz into blocks, as this cannot be undone.
- Different kinds of logs, wooden planks, saplings, wool, leaves, slabs, stairs, sandstone, mushrooms, tools, food, seeds, music discs, and stone bricks will not stack. Keep this in mind when organizing.
- Chests will not open with a block on top (except transparent blocks like torches, glass, and other chests). You can place upside down stairs or half slabs to change this.
- Label your chests! It will help you later in the game when you have many more items.
For people that have played a while, here are some extra tips:
- Place Ender chest in Storage room. On single player worlds you can keep some basic supplies to share between your bases, on multi player use it to store valuable items.
- Once you have killed the ender dragon and explored the outer end island, you will be able to store items in shulker boxes, which are much more compact than chests. You may want to use this storage system design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw9LBm3vTnQ
Your storage room is, more or less, symbolizing everything you have accomplished in that world. If you are careless, you`ll be back to block one.
Videos
Categories
Once you have completed your storage room, attic, cellar, or whatever you want to call it, you`ll want to be consistent with your organizing across all the single-player and multi-player worlds that you play on. One of the main things to do is to come up with a few general categories for every item and block in main categories, such as:
- Natural: Plants, weeds, and stuff you`d find in the natural world. (Ex. Saplings, Cacti, Tall Grass, Leaves, etc.)
- Wood: Anything having to do with wood. (Ex. Logs, planks, sticks, Fences, Boats, Signs, etc.)
- Mob Drops: Anything a mob might have dropped that`s not food or potion ingredient. (Ex. Rotten Flesh, Eggs, Ender Pearls, Feathers, etc.)
- Food: Any and all food that`s not currently on your player. (Ex. porkchops, beef, bread, chicken, the raw counterparts, carrots, and any other delicious food-like items too.)
- Stone: This means all the blocks and items that you have that are made of stone, with stone, or just, in general, have something to do with stone.
- Nether: All blocks and items pertaining to the Nether, unless used for potions, in which those items would be in the alchemy room. (Ex. Netherrack, Nether Brick, Nether Brick Stairs and Slabs, Golden Nuggets, etc.)
- Wool: There are many different colors of wool, so it gets its own chest. (Ex. Dyes, Shears, Wool, etc.)
- Combat Gear: Here is where all your weapons; TNT, armor, and, flint and steel go.
- Ores/Minerals: Anything mined out of the Earth. (Ex. Iron Ore/Ingots, Gold Ore/Ingots, Diamonds, etc.)
- Extra Tools: All extra tools that you have but do not need at the moment. (Ex. Hoe, Axe, etc.)
- Mining Gear: Gear and tools that you need when going down into your favorite mineshaft: Torches, pickaxes, buckets, or anything that you would take with you whilst mining.
- Utilities: Anything mechanical things that do not fit into any of the other categories. (Ex. Redstone Torches, Repeaters, Enchanted Books, etc.)
- Mass Junk: After a while, many players will accumulate several double chests each of cobblestone, dirt, gravel, granite, diorite, andesite. Keep things like this in an area - something, that you have a lot, you will need more chests for it, though.
- Other Junk: Stuff that you will almost never need. For instance, your best sword that can`t be repaired and only has 7 durabilities, or that fishing rod you made by accident. Put this chest in the least convenient place you have. Alternately, some players just choose to dispose of these items.
- Colored and Stained: For stuff like stained glass and clay.
- Shared Stash: You only need this chest if you are doing this on a multiplayer server where you are bunking with friends, that way, they will know if it is okay to borrow some dirt, or if all of your stuff has an invisible "HANDS OFF!" sign on it.
- Brewing: This, like the name suggests, means you put all your potions in here, along with potion ingredients, spare cauldrons, brewing stands, anything that has to do with the rich and varied world of potions.
Remember that many items can fit in multiple categories. For instance, most types of food would also fit into the mob drops or natural categories. You will need to decide what categories have priority over others.
Your own categories may vary⃢₀ₓ organize them in a way that is convenient for you.
If you are in an advanced position, having a different chest for a different Block/Item ID would help you to store huge amounts of items. Storing huge amounts of items this way, be that as it may, requires huge amounts of space.
At the entrance of your house or base, you may want to have a temporary chest that can be used for anything, so you can go farming while you keep your mining or building the setup in an easily accessible place.
It is also helpful to have a chest for items that need to be sorted. This will discourage you from simply putting items in random chests when you need to empty your inventory quickly.
Contents
Note: Everything below this line is for people that want to organize EVERYTHING, their hotbar keys, their inventory, even the inside of their chests. If you are an average person, then just reading the paragraphs above this will be enough to keep you happy. If not, read on...
The setup of how you put items in a specific chest is important too. Putting them in randomly is going to make everything all jumbled up, so you should group the same items and blocks together. Create rows of the same thing or section off the chest to specific items. One possible way to do this with multiple tools that have been used before, with differing durabilities, is to sort them like this: First, sort them by tool, sectioning them off in the chest vertically by pickaxe, shovel, hoe, etc.; then, by what they`re made of - any diamond tools go to the top, while stone or wood goes to the bottom. Within the spaces of the tools, the new ones would be higher up than the used ones (for instance, a new iron pickaxe would be higher than the used ones, but still not higher than a used gold pickaxe). How you sort your items in the chests can save your life in the future.
Inventory
Cleaning up your inventory and hot bar can also benefit players by making hot keys for items automatic (so you don`t have to look at your hot bar to select what item you want) and to find an acceptable limit for the extra resources you carry. Inventory management is crucial if you want to be an efficient player.
The following are suggestions only. There is no one way to organize an inventory, and if you are overflowing with items, you may need to adjust your item locations.
Suggestion 1
This is a method of inventory organization that is capable of changing depending on the task at hand. It uses a general layout with easy access to many items and utilities, but also leaves room for personalization.
General Layout
The screenshot to the right shows the different "zones" in the inventory. The color codes are explained below:
Red: General Utilities
- Recommended items: Compass Compass Type Tools Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See history Data value dec: 345 hex: 159 bin: 101011001 Name compass Compasses are an item used to point to the world spawn. Contents 1 Obtaining , Clock Clock Type Tools Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 347 hex: 15B bin: 101011011 Name clock See the in-game item. For the redstone circuit, see clock circuit. , arrows Arrow Type Combat Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Internal ID Normal / Tipped: PC: 10, PE: 80 Spectral: PC: 24 Network ID Normal / Tipped: PC: 60 Spectral: PC: 91 Entity ID Normal , wood Wood Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 10 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64), same species only Flammable Yes Experience Smelted: 0.15 Drops Itself Data values See Data values Name See Data values This article , ladders Ladder Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 2 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 65 hex: 41 bin: 1000001 Name ladder “ Sometimes the fans are right, too. Like ladders. I , and an Ender Chest Ender Chest Type Tile Entity Physics No Transparency Yes Luminance 7 Blast resistance 3,000 Hardness 22.5 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No First appearances See History Drops Obsidian (8) Block entity id ender_chest (after you get a Silk Touch pickaxe).
- Could be swapped with: Maps, Ender Pearls Ender Pearl Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (16) Internal ID PC: 14 PE: 87 Network ID PC: 65 Entity ID ender_pearl First appearances See History Data value dec: 368 hex: 170 bin: 101110000 Name , or more Potions Potion Type Potions Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable No First appearances See History Data values See Data values Name See Data values See the drinkable potions. For the throwable potions, see Splash .
Orange: Potions
- Recommended items: Potions of Regeneration, Fire Resistance, and Night Vision.
- Could be swapped with: Any potions.
Yellow: Crafting Utilities
- Recommended items: Crafting Table Crafting Table Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 12.5 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No, but catches fire from lava Drops Itself Data value dec: 58 hex: 3A bin: 111010 Name crafting_table The crafting table (also , Furnace Furnace Type Solid Block Requirements None Physics No Transparency Partial (when active) Luminance Yes, 13 (when active) Blast resistance 17.5 Hardness 3.5 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No First appearances See History Drops , and extra Armor Armor Type Wearable items Durability See Durability Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data values For the armor that can be worn by horses, see Horse Armor. Armor classes. From .
- Could be swapped with: Job-specific items ( redstone Redstone Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Availability Survival Drops Redstone (1) Data values See Data values Name See Data values This article is components, building blocks, etc.)
Green: Lighting
- Recommended items: Torches Torch Transparency Yes Luminance 14 Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 50 hex: 32 bin: 110010 Name torch See the common light-emitting torch.
- Could be swapped with: Glowstone Glowstone Transparency Yes Luminance 15 Blast resistance 1.5 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Glowstone Dust (2–4) Data value dec: 89 hex: 59 bin: 1011001 Name glowstone See the block.
Blue: Tools
- Recommended items: Pickaxes (work pick and a spare), Shovel Shovel Type Tools Durability Wood: 60 Uses Stone: 132 Uses Iron: 251 Uses Golden: 33 Uses Diamond: 1562 Uses Renewable Diamond: No All Others: Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data , and an Axe.
- Could be swapped with: Any tool, depends on what you`re doing.
Teal: Work storage
- Recommended items (Hotbar):
- Early Game: Half a stack of dirt and cobblestone, water bucket.
- Later Game: Ender Pearls, Stone, water bucket.
- Could be swapped with: Any job-specific items (Ex. Leave empty for mining, so you have space for minerals.) It is recommended to always carry a water bucket.
Purple: Food
- Recommended items: Any plentiful food source.
- Could be swapped with: Golden Apples Golden @@@#@@@Apple(apple.com)###@### Type Food Restores Golden AppleTechnology company 4 () Absorption (2:00) Regeneration II (0:05) Enchanted Golden AppleTechnology company 4 () Absorption IV (2:00) Regeneration II (0:20) Fire Resistance (5:00) Resistance (5:00) Cookable No Renewable Golden Apple , Health Potions.
Brown: Weapons
- Recommended items: Sword Sword Type Combat Durability Wooden: 60 Golden: 33 Stone: 132 Iron: 251 Diamond: 1562 Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data values Swords are melee weapons that are mainly used , backup sword, and Bow Bow Type Combat Durability 385 Renewable Yes Stackable No First appearances See History Data value dec: 261 hex: 105 bin: 100000101 Name bow A bow is a ranged weapon that fires arrows. Contents 1 Obtaining 1.1 Skeletons 1.2 .
- Could be swapped with: A Fishing Rod Fishing Rod Type Tools Durability 65 Renewable Yes Stackable No Experience Per catch: 1–3 First appearances See History Data value dec: 346 hex: 15A bin: 101011010 Name fishing_rod Fishing rods are tools whose primary purpose is obtaining fish. , or more swords/bows.
Slot Switching
There are two ways you can navigate the hotbar: Using the mouse wheel to switch between items, and using keyboard keys. The mouse wheel is better for beginners, but it takes longer to scroll to an item and you have a high chance of skipping over the item you want. The keyboard keys can allow to you to switch to any slot on the hotbar from anywhere, but requires you to memorize the keys and you have limited mobility in the split second you switch slots.
Here are the keys I set the keyboard bindings to and what fingers are assigned to them:
Slot 1: T - Index finger.
Slot 2: R - Index finger.
Slot 3: G - Index finger.
Slot 4: X - Middle finger.
Slot 5: C - Index finger.
Slot 6: V - Index finger.
Slot 7: B - Index finger.
Slot 8: Z - Ring finger.
Slot 9: F - Index finger.
Tips and Tricks
- Put blocks underneath your chest and put that specific block in the chest (dirt, cobblestone, iron,etc.). For minerals make a block of iron, gold, or diamond, incase you are playing on a multinational server.
- You can use item frames to label your storage room. (Although not recommended due to larger server/clientload)
- You can place trapped chests and normal chests next to each other to save space.
- For better and more compact chest organization (for chest labeling), hold down the Sneak button (Left Shift by default) and, while holding a sign or item frame, place the sign or item frame on the chest. When placing an item frame on a chest, look at the item frame and place the item or block in the frame. This trick is handy for better organization and prevention of getting confused of what goes where.
Suggestion 2
- Slot 1: Your sword. The 1 key on the keyboard is usually the easiest key to reach and is right next to your pickaxe if you run into a mob or player while mining.(Or, depending on your keyboard, you might want want to put it in slot 2 to be closer to your "W" finger.)
- Slot 2: A pickaxe of any kind, works well with the sword if you are fighting and need to tunnel away.
- Slot 3: A shovel of any kind, near the pickaxe and sword.
- Slot 4: An axe Axe Type Tools Durability Wood: 60 uses Stone: 132 uses Iron: 251 uses Golden: 33 uses Diamond: 1562 uses Renewable Yes Stackable No First appearances See History Data values See Data values Name See Data , for cutting down trees and emergency fighting, as axes only do 1/2 heart less than a sword of the same material. If you don`t need an axe, put arrows Arrow Type Combat Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Internal ID Normal / Tipped: PC: 10, PE: 80 Spectral: PC: 24 Network ID Normal / Tipped: PC: 60 Spectral: PC: 91 Entity ID Normal (to know how many more you have for shooting), or a specialized pickaxe (Fortune or Silk Touch).
- Slot 5: Your bow. For shooting mobs, players, or wooden buttons Button Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 2.5 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data values See Data values Name See Data values A button is a non-solid block .
- Slot 6: Cobblestone. There really is no excuse not to use this for pillaring, emergency walls, building, unless you also have endstone, which is more resistant to TNT TNT Transparency Partial (cannot attach other blocks) Luminance No Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable No Stackable Yes (64) Flammable Yes Drops Itself Data value dec: 46 hex: 2E bin: 101110 Name tnt TNT is a block . Also good for misc. such as a Map Map Type Tools Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data values Drawn dec: 358 hex: 166 bin: 101100110 Empty dec: 395 hex: 18B bin: 110001011 Name PCPersonal Computer Drawn: filled_map Empty: map PE Drawn: ? Empty: emptymap This if exploring.
- Slot 7: Bucket Bucket Type Tools Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (16) First appearances See History Data values PC: dec: 325 hex: 145 bin: 101000101 PE: dec: 3250 hex: 1450 bin: 1010001010 Name bucket See the item. For the server of water. For when you fall into lava, fire, or that skeleton with the enchanted bow had flame. Also gets an Enderman to de-target while hurting it. Usually Food Foods (or Foodstuffs as considered by the Creative inventory) are consumable items that when eaten restore hunger points and sometimes cause status effects. They are essential to the player s survival, as going without them will is more important than Water.
- Slot 8: Food. Extremely convenient when fleeing battle as it is only two mouse scrolls from your sword. Or can be a Clock Clock Type Tools Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 347 hex: 15B bin: 101011011 Name clock See the in-game item. For the redstone circuit, see clock circuit. , to Time those battles, best.
- Slot 9: Torches Torch Transparency Yes Luminance 14 Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 50 hex: 32 bin: 110010 Name torch See the common light-emitting torch. , Potions Potion Type Potions Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable No First appearances See History Data values See Data values Name See Data values See the drinkable potions. For the throwable potions, see Splash , or an empty spot for things you pick up.
Suggestion 3
This layout is designed for instant access to items you might need quickly, and places items with similar purpose next to each other so they can be accessed with a single scroll. It is also very flexible and has several slots that can be changed without sacrificing the functionality of the layout.
- Slot 1: Pickaxe Pickaxe Type Tools Durability Wood: 60 Uses Stone: 132 Uses Iron: 251 Uses Golden: 33 Uses Diamond: 1562 Uses Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See data values Name See data values Pickaxes are one . This layout places your pickaxe next to your shovel and torches. (The other most common things you will need when mining or caving)
- Slot 2: Shovel Shovel Type Tools Durability Wood: 60 Uses Stone: 132 Uses Iron: 251 Uses Golden: 33 Uses Diamond: 1562 Uses Renewable Diamond: No All Others: Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data . It is wise to replace this with a fire resistance potion when travelling to the nether because you won`t need a shovel there unless you are collecting soul sand, and because it is easy to reach in case you fall into lava.
- Slot 3: Sword Sword Type Combat Durability Wooden: 60 Golden: 33 Stone: 132 Iron: 251 Diamond: 1562 Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data values Swords are melee weapons that are mainly used . Slot 3 is the easiest to reach with your index finger while backing up with your middle finger. This strategy is efficient when you encounter mobs by surprise.
- Slot 4: Dirt Dirt Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 2.5 Tool Renewable No Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 03 hex: 3 bin: 11 Name dirt See Dirt. For the similar block, see , cobblestone Cobblestone Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 30 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Experience Smelted: 0.1 Drops Itself Data value dec: 4 hex: 4 bin: 100 Name cobblestone Cobblestone is a common block, obtained from , or another common block. Also easy to reach for emergency situations like a lava flow and very convenient for normal use.
- Slot 5: Bow Bow Type Combat Durability 385 Renewable Yes Stackable No First appearances See History Data value dec: 261 hex: 105 bin: 100000101 Name bow A bow is a ranged weapon that fires arrows. Contents 1 Obtaining 1.1 Skeletons 1.2 . Relatively close to your sword, but out of the way. If you need to use your bow, you are probably several blocks away and not in immediate danger.
- Slot 6: Bucket Bucket Type Tools Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (16) First appearances See History Data values PC: dec: 325 hex: 145 bin: 101000101 PE: dec: 3250 hex: 1450 bin: 1010001010 Name bucket See the item. For the server of water Water Transparency Partial (-2 to light) Luminance No Blast resistance 500 (Flowing) 500 (Still) Tool Renewable Yes Stackable N/A Flammable No Drops None Data values Flowing Water dec: 08 hex: 8 bin: 1000 Still Water dec: 09 hex: 9 bin: 1001 . Great for when caving or mining near bedrock to take care of lava.
- Slot 7: Potions Potion Type Potions Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable No First appearances See History Data values See Data values Name See Data values See the drinkable potions. For the throwable potions, see Splash . Alternatively, anything you might need for the task at hand.
- Slot 8: Food Foods (or Foodstuffs as considered by the Creative inventory) are consumable items that when eaten restore hunger points and sometimes cause status effects. They are essential to the player s survival, as going without them will . Important to have on the bar, but out of the way.
- Slot 9: Torches Torch Transparency Yes Luminance 14 Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 50 hex: 32 bin: 110010 Name torch See the common light-emitting torch. . One scroll away from your pickaxe for easy access while mining.