A new way to store items has arrived, and like item frames, everything within the block is visible at all times! So, today, we explore shelf blocks, and the secret features they hide, in our Minecraft shelves guide.

How to Craft Minecraft Shelves

Shelf blocks have been added to all existing wood sets, including bamboo, crimson fungi, and warped fungi. To craft some of these nifty storage blocks of your very own, you need only gather six matching stripped logs and place them along the top and bottom row of a crafting table. This will produce six shelves, matching the stripped logs used to craft them.

Unpowered Shelf Blocks

Each shelf block can store three items, with one stack of storage space for each. To store an item, simply right-click an open spot on the shelf. This will visibly store the item, much like an item frame. Right-clicking the item again will retrieve the entire stack.

Powered Shelf Blocks

When a shelf block is powered by redstone of any kind, such as a redstone torch, it gains a new appearance alongside new features. Any player that right-clicks a powered shelf block will automatically swap the last three item slots on their hotbar with whatever is stored. This feature can be expanded further by connecting three powered shelf blocks, allowing players to swap their entire hotbar with the click of a button. This effectively allows players to create loadouts that can be swapped with ease at any time. For example, three powered shelf blocks could be used to swap your mining hotbar on the way out of the mines for a building or combat oriented one. One could even create an armory where the most effective loadouts are available for each and every boss. To tell if your Minecraft shelves are powered, check to see if the vertical lines that divide the stored items are still present. If they are, the shelves are not powered.