Unless you know how to keep inventory when you die in Minecraft, it’s best to keep your items safe at home. For that, let’s learn how to make a chest in Minecraft and even unlock some of its variants. 

How to Make a Chest in Minecraft (2024)

From types to spawning, our guide covers everything you need to know about chests in Minecraft. 

What is a Chest in Minecraft

Chests are one of the various storage blocks in Minecraft. They allow you to keep your items safe in one location while you go on adventures. In terms of appearance, the chests are wooden boxes with an openable upper part.

Though, due to this design you cannot open a chest if a block is above it. Furthermore, they also catch fire from lava but fortunately, the flames don't destroy it. But, explosions like TNT and Creepers can destroy chests.

How Many Items Can a Chest Hold

Every chest in Minecraft has 27 inventory slots. Considering that, in most cases, you can stack up to 64 items in a single slot, a chest allows you to hold 1728 items. But, unless you craft its variants, Minecraft doesn't allow you to move chests without destroying them.

Where Do Chests Spawn

Chests are one of the most common blocks in the game. You can find them in various structures across all three dimensions of Minecraft. These include:

• Ancient Cities
• Temples (Jungle & Desert)
• Strongholds
• Villages
• Igloos
• Nether Fortress
• End City
• Woodland Mansions
• Shipwrecks
• Ocean Ruins
• Monster Rooms/Dungeons
• Pillager Outposts
• Ruined Portals
• Bastion Remnants
• Trial Chamber

Moreover, you can even find chests underground on beaches in the form of buried treasure in Minecraft. But, except for the loot inside them, these chests mostly remain the same in each location.

How to Make a Chest in Minecraft (Steps)

Follow these easy steps to make a chest in Minecraft:

1. First, find trees in your world and break them to collect wood. Alternatively, you can also use bamboo wood for your chests.

2. Next, place the wood blocks in your inventory grid to turn them into planks.

3. Then, combine four planks to make a crafting table in Minecraft.

4. Place down the crafting table and open it by right-clicking on it.

5. Finally, create a hollow square in a 3*3 crafting grid with 8 planks. With that, your chest in Minecraft is ready to use!

6. Not to forget, you can use any planks while making a chest. They don't even have to be of the same type of wood.

How to Use a Chest

After you make a chest in Minecraft, you must place it down to use it. There is no way to open a chest while it is in your inventory. Moreover, when you place two chests side-by-side they turn into a large chest. This large chest can hold up to 3456 items.

To use a chest, right-click on it and open it. Then, place any item or block that you don't need in its inventory. Once you exit the chest's inventory it closes itself. But, if you are playing on the best Minecraft SMP servers, any player can access it. Luckily, you can secure your items in a chest using some of its variants.

Types of Chests in Minecraft

You can find and make the following types of chests in Minecraft:

• Boat/Raft with Chest: You can combine your chest with a boat or a raft in the crafting grid. Doing so allows you to move your chest in that vehicle. But, doing so also takes away one seat in the same.
• Minecart with Chest: You can also place a chest in a minecart by combining these two items. But, unlike a boat, you need rails to place and use this chest.
• Trapped Chest: Adding a tripwire hook to a chest turns it into a Redstone component. Whenever someone opens a trap chest, it sends a Redstone signal that can activate traps.

Christmas Chest

From the 24th to the 26th of December, Minecraft changes the texture of its chests to make them appear like Christmas presents. The regular chest turns red and the large chest becomes green. This change automatically takes place inside the game every year, but only on the Java edition.

Bonus Chest

When you create a new world in Minecraft, the game allows you to spawn a bonus chest. This chest works exactly like a regular chest but contains a few items to help you get started. Its loot includes wood, tools, food, and building blocks.

Other Uses of Chests

Other than storing items, you can use chests in Minecraft for the following purposes:

• Hopper: You can combine a chest with 5 iron ingots to create a hopper in Minecraft. This unique item works like a funnel and allows you to transfer between blocks.
• Shulker Box: Made with the help of Shulker shells, these are portable versions of chests. You can use them to move a large amount of blocks and items in your world.
• Fuel: If you have too many chests, you can burn them in furnaces to smelt ores and cook food.
• Tigger Piglins: When players open or mine chests, Piglins immediately become hostile. You can use this mechanic to trigger them when needed.

Better Mobs

If keeping a chest in one place feels limiting, it's time to ask for some help. Minecraft allows you to place chests on certain mobs by right-clicking on them. The mobs include:

• Donkey
• Mule
• Llama

Once placed on a donkey or a mule, the chest only gets 15 inventory slots instead of its usual 21. Furthermore, when you add a chest to a llama, the slots can range anywhere between 3 to 15, based on the mob's strength.

Make and Use a Chest in Minecraft

Having a chest in Minecraft keeps your item safe from despawning and mobs. But, other players can still easily access it. That’s why your next step is to make an Ender chest in Minecraft. Just like a trail vault in Minecraft, these chests have a separate inventory for every player. With that out of the way, do you think your chest in Minecraft should be lockable? Join the discussion and share your take on our Discord server.