---
title: "Sorting chests - Sorted wiki"
description: "How a chest is sorted, what ends up together, and the layout each chest remembers."
url: https://voxelsprout.com/sorted/wiki/sorting-chests
---

[Sorted](https://voxelsprout.com/sorted) [Wiki](https://voxelsprout.com/sorted/wiki)Sorting chests

# Sorting chests

How a chest is sorted, what ends up together, and the layout each chest remembers.

Open a chest, barrel or shulker box and click the sort button above it, on the right.

Clip: A chest full of mixed items sorted with one click, then laid out in rows. Video: https://voxelsprout.com/media/sorted/sort-chest.mp4

## The layouts

| Click       | Layout                                            |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Click       | Picks the layout that suits what is in the chest. |
| Shift+Click | Columns: each kind of thing gets its own column.  |
| Ctrl+Click  | Rows: each kind of thing gets its own row.        |

Each chest remembers the layout you used on it. Quick Empty and sorting on open use it again.

## What goes together

Sorted groups things by what they are, not by name. A redstone chest gets dust, torches, repeaters and comparators in one group, pistons in the next, then droppers, dispensers and hoppers, then rails.

Clip: A redstone chest sorted, then laid out in rows. Video: https://voxelsprout.com/media/sorted/sort-redstone.mp4

In a wood chest each kind of wood is a group of its own, with logs, planks, stairs, slabs, fences and doors in the same order.

Clip: A wood chest sorted into one row per kind of wood. Video: https://voxelsprout.com/media/sorted/sort-wood.mp4

## Sorting on open

* **Auto-sort containers on open default Off:** Sort a chest, barrel or shulker box when you open it, in the layout you used on it last.
* **Merge partial stacks default On:** Combine partial stacks of the same item before sorting.

[Previous Sorting your inventory](https://voxelsprout.com/sorted/wiki/sorting-your-inventory) [Next Quick Stack](https://voxelsprout.com/sorted/wiki/quick-stack)

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