How to Build an Automatic Storage System: Easy Organisation

You’ve probably already built some sort of storage system in Minecraft, but you always have to find the right chest and correctly assign your items. This can take quite a while, and if you haven’t labelled the chests properly, it becomes complicated and confusing. This is why it’s worth building an automatic storage system where you only need to place your items in one chest. These will then be sorted into the correct chests automatically.

The setup isn’t actually difficult, but it will cost you some resources. The good thing is that the design can be infinitely large, so you can build a massive warehouse! With our step-by-step guide, you’ll learn all the basics.

When is a storage system worth it?

A large and complex storage system is especially worthwhile for blocks that you have a lot of. These include cobblestone, dirt, various types of wood, and other building blocks. It’s less worthwhile for valuable resources like diamonds, but if you have several stacks of those as well, you can use it for those too.

Keep in mind that this system only sorts one type of block or item into each chest. The item filter, which ensures the blocks are sorted correctly, won’t work otherwise. So, you will need a lot of chests to fill the storage system.

You will also need some space, as the mechanism for the automatic sorter takes up several blocks. Besides a long double chest, you need at least 5 blocks of space behind it.

What do you need to build it?

As mentioned earlier, the setup isn’t exactly cheap. What you will need the most are a lot of hoppers! And for that, you need a lot of iron. Either go mining for it or build an iron farm with villagers, which also works automatically. We have a guide for that too (How to Build an Iron Farm: Unlimited Supply of Iron) . Our iron farm from the tutorial has already produced several stacks of iron, which you can then use for the hoppers.

You will also need wood for enough chests, both for the storage and for the chest in the hopper recipe.

Now come the Redstone components. You need Redstone dust, Redstone torches, and both repeaters and comparators. Make sure you have enough regular stone and quartz for the comparators.

Step-by-step guide for an automatic storage system

We will go through the entire process in two sections. First, we will show you the basic mechanism and then how to expand it to a larger storage system. But first, it is important to understand how items can actually be sorted in Minecraft. Our accompanying images should help you implement the sorter.

Sorting mechanism explained simply!

1. Start the mechanism with a double chest, into which the items will later be guided. Behind it, place a hopper leading into the chest. As mentioned earlier, you need 5 more blocks of space behind it. Place a block behind and under the hopper with a Redstone torch on it. Behind this, place a repeater in another gap, pointing towards the block with the torch.

2. After laying the first row of Redstone, the second level comes into play. Place 3 blocks of building material behind the hopper. Then comes the comparator. Place this from the front on the block behind the hopper. The two prongs should be at the front. Behind it, lay three more Redstone dust.

3. Now you need to install the item sorter. Attach another hopper in front of the comparator with a shift-click. This will cause the comparator to compare items in the hopper and ensure that only certain things land in the chest. To set this up, you need to build a sort of filter. Use a block of your choice that can be stacked up to 64. Place one of these in the last four slots of the hopper in front of the comparator.

In the first slot of the hopper, place the material you want to sort into the chest below. You need at least 42 blocks here, as 41 will remain in the hopper for the comparator to function. This design is more worthwhile for a large storage system. The 41 blocks are necessary to balance the Redstone signal and ensure it doesn’t overlap with neighbouring chests.

And there you have the basic principle of your storage system! Although the initial setup is somewhat challenging, it is actually easy to understand and implement. The most important thing is that the filter works.

Expanding the storage space

1. This automatic sorting system can be infinitely expanded. You just need enough hoppers and Redstone, but you can simply build the design in a row. As mentioned above, thanks to the filter, the Redstone signals do not overlap. Each filter works with 4 individual filter items and the 41 chest items.

2. Finally, you need to build a storage chest where you can later empty your inventory. A chest at the end of the row of hoppers is the beginning. This is where all the items that cannot be sorted will land. Above this, you need to build another row of hoppers that all point into each other. On the last hopper, place the chest, which will distribute the items into all the hoppers.

Now the system is complete! You can still label the respective chests, for example with frames or signs. This way, you can distinguish them better later on.

You can then expand your warehouse as you like. Hide the Redstone behind a wall, for example, so you only see the chests. Here, you can let your creativity run wild again. The items will then be sorted in the background, and you won’t have to worry about it anymore.

Conclusion

If you ever have too many items and blocks, it’s worth setting up an automatic storage system. It will cost you some resources, especially iron and Redstone, but in the long run, it is absolutely worth it! The best thing about the design is that you can expand it infinitely. The more items you have, the larger you can make your storage. Manage your resources more efficiently with an automatic storage system on your own server. Rent your Minecraft server and keep track of all your treasures! Together with friends, such a warehouse can also be built quite easily if everyone collects the necessary resources.