How to Build an Automatic Storage System: Easy Organization

You’ve probably already built a storage system in Minecraft, but you always have to find the right chest and properly allocate your items. This can take quite a while, and if you don’t label the chests correctly, it becomes complicated and confusing. That’s why it’s worth building an automatic storage system, where you only need to put your items in one chest. They are then automatically sorted into the correct chests.

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

When is a storage system worth it?

Such 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 useful for valuable resources like diamonds, but if you have several stacks of them, you can use it for those as well.

Keep in mind that this system only allows one type of block or item to be in the chest at a time. The item filter that ensures the blocks are sorted correctly doesn’t work otherwise. So you’ll need a lot of chests to fill the storage.

Additionally, you’ll need some space because the mechanism for the automatic sorter takes up several blocks. Besides a double chest, you’ll need at least 5 blocks of space behind it.

What do I need for the build?

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

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

Now come the redstone components. You’ll need redstone dust, redstone torches, and both repeaters and comparators. Have enough regular stone and quartz for the comparators.

Step-by-Step Guide for an Automatic Storage System

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

Sorting Mechanism Explained Simply!

1. Start the mechanism with a double chest, where the items will be directed later. Behind it, place a hopper that leads into the chest. As mentioned in the introduction, you’ll need 5 more blocks of space behind. Place a block behind and below the hopper with a redstone torch on it. Behind this, place a repeater facing into the block with the torch.

2. After laying the first row of redstone, it’s time for the second layer. Place 3 blocks of building material behind the hopper. Now the comparator comes into play. Place it from the front onto the block behind the hopper. The two prongs should be facing forward. Behind it, lay three more redstone dust.

3. Now you need to install the item sorter. Attach another hopper to the front of the comparator with a shift-click. This causes the comparator to compare items in the hopper and ensures that only specific items land in the chest. To set this up, you need to build a filter. Use a block of your choice that can stack 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, as 41 will stay in the hopper for the comparator to function. This design is more suitable for a large storage system. The 41 blocks ensure that the redstone signal is balanced and doesn’t overlap with adjacent chests.

But that’s the basic principle for your storage system! Although the initial setup might be a bit tricky, it’s actually simple to understand and implement. The important thing is that the filter works.

Expanding the Storage Space

1. This automatic sorting system can be expanded infinitely. You just need enough hoppers and redstone, but the design can be built in a row. As described above, the redstone signals don’t overlap thanks to the filters. Each filter works with 4 individual filter items and the 41 chest items.

2. Lastly, you need to build an input chest where you can later empty your inventory. A chest at the end of the row of hoppers is the start. All items that can’t be sorted will end up there. Above, you need to build another row of hoppers, all pointing into each other. On the last hopper, place the chest, which will distribute the items into all hoppers.

Now the system is complete! You can label the respective chests, for example with frames or signs, to better distinguish them later.

You can then expand your warehouse as you like. For example, hide the redstone behind a wall so you only see the chests. Here you can let your creativity run wild again. The items are then sorted in the background, and you don’t have to worry about them.

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’s 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, building such a warehouse is easy if everyone gathers the necessary resources.