Minecraft inventory management is a nightmare. Honestly, we’ve all been there—staring at a wall of fifty chests, trying to remember if the blaze rods are in the "Mob Drops" chest or the "Fire Stuff" chest. You spend half your gaming session just moving items around. While most people immediately jump to heavyweights like Applied Energistics 2 (AE2) or Refined Storage, there is a massive segment of the player base that just wants to play the game without getting a degree in digital engineering. That is exactly where Tom's Simple Storage comes in.
It is lean. It is incredibly cheap to craft. Most importantly, it doesn’t require a doctorate in channel management or a massive nuclear reactor just to see how many cobblestones you have.
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What makes Tom's Simple Storage actually work
The brilliance of the mod lies in its simplicity. It doesn’t try to turn your items into data bits or store them in a hard drive. Instead, it acts as a "brain" that connects to the chests you already own. You place down a Storage Terminal, connect it to your chests using some inexpensive cables, and suddenly every item in every chest is visible in one single, searchable menu. It’s basically a search engine for your basement.
I’ve seen players get frustrated because they think they need to replace their entire storage room to use it. You don't. If you have a massive wall of double chests, you just slap a Storage Inventory Cable on the back of each one and link them to the Terminal. If you're feeling fancy, you use the Storage Connector block, which automatically detects any chest touching it or touching another chest in the same pile. It's plug-and-play in a way that modern tech mods usually aren't.
One thing people often overlook is the craftability. To get started with a Storage Terminal, you’re looking at some iron, a bit of gold, a diamond, and some glowstone. That’s it. You can have a functional, searchable storage system within the first hour of a new world. Compare that to the hours of mining for Certus Quartz and building an Inscriber in AE2. There’s no contest for the early game.
The Wireless Problem and how Tom solves it
We have to talk about the Wireless Terminal. It’s the holy grail. Being able to access your base storage while you’re actually out building a farm or working on a roof is a massive quality-of-life upgrade. Tom’s Simple Storage offers a few tiers of this. The basic Wireless Terminal has a limited range, which is fine for small bases. But the Advanced Wireless Terminal? It works across dimensions if you set it up right with a beacon.
People often ask if it’s "cheating" to have such easy access. Not really. You still have to manage the physical space for the chests. The mod doesn't give you infinite space; it just gives you a better way to look at the space you have.
Setting up your first network without the headache
Don't overthink the layout. Seriously. The most common mistake is trying to make it look like a computer lab.
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- Place your Storage Terminal where you want to stand.
- Put a Storage Connector against a chest.
- Use Storage Inventory Cables to link any chests that aren't touching that main cluster.
- If you want to craft directly from the menu, upgrade to the Crafting Terminal.
The Crafting Terminal is the real MVP here. It has a built-in 3x3 grid. When you search for "Pickaxe," you can see if you have the sticks and diamonds, and you just click once to craft it. It even pulls the items directly from the connected chests. It saves a ridiculous amount of time.
You should also keep an eye on the Level Emitter. It’s a bit more "advanced," but basically, it lets you trigger a redstone signal when an item count drops below a certain number. If you’re low on logs, the light turns on. It’s simple automation that doesn't require a 40-minute YouTube tutorial to understand.
Why the "Simple" in the name actually matters
Complex mods often fail because they have high "overhead." You spend more time maintaining the mod than using it. Tom's Simple Storage has zero power requirements by default (though some modpacks might change this). It doesn't break if a creeper blows up one cable—well, it stops working, but your items are still safe in the chests. They don't vanish into a digital void if the power goes out.
This mod bridges the gap between the "I use wooden signs on chests" player and the "I have a server room" player. It’s for the person who wants to build cool structures or explore dungeons without spending twenty minutes sorting loot every time they come home.
Dealing with the common "Not enough items" bug
Sometimes players open the terminal and see... nothing. It’s a common panic moment. Usually, this happens because the Storage Connector isn't actually touching the chests, or you've exceeded the block limit for a single connector.
Pro tip: Use the Inventory Trim block. It’s a decorative-looking block that acts as a connector. You can use it to "bridge" the connection between chests without using ugly cables. It makes your storage room look like a cohesive wall of wood or stone rather than a mess of wires. If your terminal is blank, check your trims. A single gap in the line will kill the whole connection.
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Integrating with other mods
If you’re playing a big modpack like All The Mods (ATM) or Better Minecraft, Tom's Simple Storage plays surprisingly well with others. You can connect it to sophisticated storage barrels or even crates from other mods. As long as the block has an "inventory," the Storage Connector can usually read it.
However, be careful with "infinite" storage blocks. If you connect a terminal to a chest that contains millions of items (like a Creative Crate), the game might lag when you open the search bar. The mod has to index every single item. For 99% of survival players, this will never be an issue, but it's something to keep in mind if you're a hoarding enthusiast.
Actionable Next Steps for your Minecraft World
To get the most out of this mod right now, stop what you're doing and craft these three things in order:
- The Crafting Terminal: Don't settle for the basic Storage Terminal. The ability to craft using your entire inventory at once is the main reason to use the mod.
- A Storage Bus/Connector: Place this on your most dense chest area first to get an immediate "win" in organization.
- The Filtered Link Cable: Use this if you want to keep certain items (like cobble or dirt) in specific overflow chests while keeping your "good" chests for valuables.
Once those are in place, focus on the Advanced Wireless Terminal. It requires an ender pearl and some more expensive materials, but once you can access your base from 100 blocks away while building your mega-base, you’ll never go back to vanilla chests again. Just remember to keep your chests organized physically if you ever plan on removing the mod, or you'll be left with a literal mountain of unsorted junk.
The most effective way to scale is to use Storage Drawers alongside Tom's. Place a Storage Connector on a Drawer Controller, and suddenly your massive bulk storage is perfectly indexed in your terminal. This combo is widely considered the "Gold Standard" for mid-game organization because it handles both unique items and massive stacks of blocks with zero lag.