How to make an item sorter in Minecraft Bedrock

Given the number of blocks and items in Minecraft, storing them can be quite a tedious task. Fortunately, with a few chests, some hoppers, and a little redstone knowledge, you can easily make an item sorter that allows you to place your excess blocks and items into a chest, where they're funneled into additional storage chests and are sorted automatically.

Creating a basic item sorter in Minecraft Bedrock shouldn't require too many resources or an extensive amount of knowledge of redstone machinery. You can start small before expanding on your sorting system since the build is quite easy to build and replicate. This makes it a fantastic way to store items/blocks conveniently and keep them organized without doing so personally.

With that in mind, let's take a look at how to build a basic item sorter for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

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Building a simple item sorter in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition

The side profile of an item sorter in Minecraft Bedrock (Image via Mojang)

In addition to requiring chests, hoppers, and some redstone components, you will need a random Minecraft item or block to use to fill the hopper inventory slots if you'd like overflow protection and an anvil to name them to prevent them from being misplaced.

Moreover, you will need 41 of each item you want to sort to inform the hoppers about where to place the sorted goods. Though this may sound confusing at first, things will make more sense once you begin building your sorter.

Below, you can find the steps to building a simple five-item/block sorter for Minecraft Bedrock:

1. Begin by placing five double chests in a row (you can place more double chests if you'd like to sort more items, but this can be done after the sorter is completed).
2. Add an additional layer of double chests on top of the ones placed in Step 1.
3. Move to the back of the chests and place hoppers that connect to each chest.
4. Leave a one-block gap behind the hoppers. Then, place a row of building blocks.
5. Place redstone torches on the faces of the blocks placed in Step 4 so that they are between the blocks and the hoppers.
6. Behind the blocks placed in Step 4, place redstone repeaters facing them.
7. Place an additional row of building blocks behind the repeaters.
8. Place three blocks behind each of the topmost hoppers. This should result in basic blocks covering the top of the redstone torches and the repeaters.
9. Place redstone comparators next to the topmost hoppers but ensure that they're pointing away from the hoppers.
10. Cover the remaining blocks you placed in Steps 7 and 8 with redstone dust.
11. Build a new row of hoppers that stand atop the existing ones and point toward the redstone comparators.
12. Place a temporary building block on the left side of the new row of hoppers placed in Step 11, then place a chest on top of it. Remove the temporary block afterward.
13. Build a final line of hoppers leading to the chest placed in Step 12. Ensure that all hoppers are pointing in the same direction toward the chest. This row of hoppers should have one extra hopper on the right side.
14. On top of the extra hopper placed in Step 13, place a chest.
15. Place an anvil and take 20 of a random block or item and rename them. They can be renamed to anything you like, but as an example, we'll use dirt blocks and rename them "Fill Item."
16. Open the inventory of each hopper in the middle row and place a "Fill Item" in four of their five slots. This should cause each redstone comparator to light up.
17. Open the inventory of each hopper in the middle row and place 41 of an item/block you want to be sorted into the open slot. For example, if you wanted iron ingots to be sorted in this Minecraft machine, you would place 41 iron ingots in the slot not occupied by "Fill Items".

An angled view of the item sorter in Minecraft Bedrock (Image via Mojang)

Fill Items being placed in each middle hopper to prevent overflow for this Minecraft Bedrock sorting machine (Image via Mojang)

The item that needs to be sorted is placed last in the middle hopper for this Minecraft sorting machine (Image via Mojang)

If all the steps have been followed correctly, you should be able to place any Minecraft items/blocks you'd like to be sorted in the top-right chest of the machine. The goods will be moved through the hoppers and sorted into their respective chests. However, any items or blocks that don't match with items/blocks that need to be sorted will be placed in the left-most chest so they can be collected later.

As an added point of clarity, it doesn't hurt to make a few item frames in Minecraft and add them to the bottom rows of chests. These frames can then be filled with items you'd like to sort, so you can mark each chest with the materials the chests are holding.