Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) Guides

How To Expand Your House Storage & Inventory Space

With all of the crafting materials to collect and creatures to catch in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it doesn’t take long to fill up your inventory and storage space! Learn how to unlock upgrades to increase your item storage space in this guide.

You have two different types of space to make use of in Animal Crossing: New Horizons:

• Limited inventory space in your pockets at all times.
• Expansive storage space only accessible from inside your house using Right on the D-Pad.

Both of these spaces can be expanded through progression as you play as we cover below.

How To Upgrade & Increase Your House Storage Space

Early on in your Animal Crossing life, your house’s storage space expands automatically every time you pay off your debt with Tom Nook at Resident Services to upgrade your home. This space starts off small at just 80 slots, but will soon become your primary method of storage!

These initial storage upgrades tied to home expansions are listed in the table below, follow it to track your current progression and how many slots to look forward to unlocking next:

Bonus Storage Upgrades After Final House Expansion

Starting with the Version 1.6 update, and continuing in the Version 2.0 and Version 3.0 updates, Tom Nook offers further bonus upgrades to your house storage space by speaking to him at Resident Services.

Just select ‘Expand my storage’ after your home is fully expanded to include a basement, and purchase the following upgrades:

The latest Version 3.0 Update introduced the final fifth and sixth bonus storage space expansions at a pretty penny! This same update also now allows bushes, trees, and other similar items to be stored away. Expanding your storage space is extra useful when used in conjunction with Resetti’s Reset Service.

How To Upgrade Your Pocket Inventory Space

There are two separate upgrades you can unlock and purchase in Animal Crossing: New Horizons to increase your maximum inventory space which will allow you to carry vastly more crafting materials, bugs, fish, furniture, clothes, tools, and more at once.

For new players, these are some of the most effective upgrades you can buy with Nook Miles and we recommend acquiring them as soon as possible.

Upgrade #1: Pocket Organization Guide – 5000 Miles

The Pocket Organization Guide is the first inventory increase unlock you can get in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and increases your inventory space by adding a third full row of 10 new item slots.

You can purchase the Pocket Organization Guide upgrade for 5000 Miles from the Nook Stop Terminal inside of Resident Services. It’s available starting when you unlock the Nook Miles+ program after paying off your first Tent loan with 5000 Miles and opening a new loan with Tom Nook.

Upgrade #2: Ultimate Pocket Stuffing – 8000 Miles

The Ultimate Pocket Stuffing is the second and final inventory increase unlock you can get in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and increases your inventory space again by adding a fourth full row of 10 more new item slots.

You can purchase the Ultimate Pocket Stuffing upgrade for 8000 Miles from the Nook Stop Terminal inside of Resident Services. It’s available starting once you have upgraded the Resident Services tent into the full-fledged Town Hall building with Isabelle!

Unfortunately, there are currently no further inventory space increases available in the game. Your maximum inventory caps out at 4 rows or 40 item slots.

Managing Your Inventory Space

While you can’t upgrade your inventory in any further ways beyond all of the  upgrades already listed above, there are a few other ways to help manage your inventory space effectively to keep things under control early on.

Check Nook Shopping Catalog & Sell Re-Orderable Items

Every time you pick up any kind of furniture or clothing item in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it’s added to your character’s saved catalog. Then when you visit the Nook Shopping menu at the Nook Stop terminal, you can re-order many of those items at any item and receive them in your mailbox.

Generally special items obtained in unusual methods like from visiting characters such as Gulliver or Saharah and crafted items are excluded from catalog ordering, but most other items are available to order.

We recommend checking through your catalog, inventory, and house storage space to see what items you may have that can be sold to Nook’s Cranny and re-ordered later if you decided you want them again. This can help free up inventory space that may be cluttered from keeping items ‘just in case’.

Keep Upgrading Your House for Storage Space

Once you’ve upgraded from a tent into a full-fledged house, you can start storing almost every type of item (turnips and grown trees seem to be some of the few exceptions) in your home’s built-in storage space. To access the house storage space, simply press the right button on the Left Joy-Con or Pro Controller D-Pad.

What’s even better is that the maximum amount of space for items in your house storage will increase alongside the physical size of your home every time you start a new loan with Tom Nook. So if you’re running out of storage space, be sure to keep upgrading your house as often as you can.

Remember, You Can Just Place Items Outside

Finally, it’s worth remembering that you can always just place most items outside. Notably, you can place items like bugs and fish outdoors that could previously never go anywhere but your inventory or storage space.

So don’t forget to take advantage of this opportunity if inventory and storage space is getting tight! There’s likely a ton of empty space up in the cliff areas of your island if you haven’t yet developed them yet that can be used for placing items as storage.