Storage and containers in Project Zomboid

Every container has one number, its capacity, and that number is a weight limit. It is not a count of slots. A 60 crate holds 60 units of item weight. Furniture found in the world has a fixed capacity per type. Crates you build depend on which recipe you used.

The figures below are base values with no trait applied. Mods and sandbox options can change them, so check the number shown in game. Servers can also set a per-container item count limit, which is off by default (one source). See multiplayer for server settings.

Older guides give every player-built crate 50 capacity. That is a Build 41 figure. Build 42 splits the crate into two recipes with 40 and 60. Kitchen counters are missing from the table because no source we could read gave a Build 42 number. Full trunk figures per model are on the vehicle list.

Both wood crates cost 4 planks and 4 nails and need a hammer. The shoddy version unlocks at Carpentry 3 and the full crate at Carpentry 7. Metal crates come from welding and hold more than any wooden one.

Crates are the only common container that stacks. Three fit on one tile, so one tile of full wood crates holds 180 and one tile of metal crates holds 240 (one source). No shelf, wardrobe or locker comes close per tile.

When zombies attack a stack of wood crates, the top crate breaks first (one source). Opinion Put the things you would least like to lose in the bottom crate and keep stacks away from outside walls and windows.

Organized multiplies container capacity by about 1.3 and Disorganized by about 0.7. Two sources agree on those multipliers. The traits apply to world containers and to bags, but not to the character's main inventory (one source). One Build 42 trait list prices Organized at 4 points and has Disorganized give back 6 (one source); confirm the costs on the character screen or on our traits page.

By the multiplier, a 60 crate becomes 78 with Organized and 42 with Disorganized.

Bags follow one extra rule. A bag has a capacity and a weight reduction. The reduction only counts while the bag is worn or held, and it never lets more fit inside. A crate, shelf or trunk has no weight reduction at all, so it only limits how much goes in. The bags page covers what the character wears and carries.

Open the Move Furniture cursor from the icon on the left of the screen. Tab cycles the modes: Pick Up, Place, Rotate, Scrap and Repair. R cycles between objects on one tile and rotates a piece while placing. Before lifting, empty the container and drain any water from it. You also need free room in the main inventory equal to the weight of the piece.

These values come from pzfans pages checked against 42.20.4. The two pages disagree on the locker, giving Carpentry 3 and Carpentry 4, so read the info panel that appears when you hover the piece. The Build 41 rule that fridges need a screwdriver and Electrical 3 no longer applies to ordinary house fridges. Multi-tile furniture comes apart into several pieces, and all must be present to place it. A fridge fits in most vehicle trunks.

A powered fridge makes food age at 0.2 times the normal rate, so it lasts about five times longer. A fish fillet that spoils in 2 days lasts about 10. Food that has fully frozen in a powered freezer does not age at all. Freezing takes about 4 in-game hours (one source). The fridge strength is a sandbox option; see sandbox settings.

The whole table is from one source that read the game files (one source). We found no confirmed figure for the standard house fridge.

Without power a fridge is an ordinary cupboard. Food ages at the full rate and frozen food thaws in roughly 90 in-game minutes (one source). Since 42.21 the appliances warm up gradually when the grid fails instead of spoiling everything at once. A fridge draws fuel whenever the generator runs, whether it is full or empty. Check shelf lives on the food list and preserve the surplus by cooking or jarring.

Build 42 treats fuel and water as fluids held in fluid containers. A gas can holds 10 L and a jerry can 20 L. Buckets hold 10 L and most bottles 1 L (one source). Gasoline goes into any empty fluid container, but a container cannot mix two fluids. A generator tank is 10 L, so one gas can equals one refill.

For water, the rain collector crate holds 400 L at Carpentry 3 and the rain collector barrel 600 L at Carpentry 5 (one source). Both must sit under open sky, and rain arrives tainted. A water dispenser holds about 15 L. The water guide covers plumbing and purifying.

Opinion Fill every can at a pump while the grid still powers it, and keep the cans in one marked crate beside the generator rather than spread around the base.

The vanilla game has no label for crates. Bags can be renamed, and paint can put symbols on walls (one source), so a painted mark above each stack works as a sign.

Opinion A layout that holds up over a long run:

• Give every container one purpose, and every room one theme.
• Keep materials beside the station that uses them: metal by the forge, food by the stove.
• In a stack, put light small items in the bottom crate and heavy items on top.
• Park a van or pickup by the workshop as a large extra container.

Things to avoid:

• Do not leave perishable food in an unpowered fridge. It protects nothing.
• Do not leave reserves on the floor on a server. Ground item cleanup can remove some item types after 24 hours by default (one source).
• Do not run a generator inside a closed building. The fumes are dangerous.
• Do not keep your only stock of anything in a wood crate that zombies can reach.

Opinion Store fuel away from stoves and campfires. We could not confirm how stored fuel behaves in a fire, and fire spreads fast enough that the caution costs nothing. For the wider plan, see base building.