What are your barn/silo space saving strategies?

If you're like me, you're always battling the barn/silo space dilemma. What strategies have you discovered work for you - maybe we can help each other out with our ideas. I'll share a couple of mine:

*I used to find myself not having room in my barn when my pigs and sheep, in particular, were ready - I have 12 each. So now I always collect the 12 feed to place in my barn. That way, when the animals are ready I know I'll have room in the barn as the bacon/wool will simply replace the feed. (I do not use this strategy for my chickens and cows as their time cycle is much quicker - they can wait for "harvesting" if needed.) Oh - I also use this strategy for my pets (9 dogs and 3 cats) and alpacas. I want to make sure to collect and feed from pets ASAP as they tend to drop "goodies."

*I save my pick axes and shovels for mining and do not go mining until there is a specific item I need because you often collect 2 or 3 items with one pick axe/shovel, taking up more room in your barn.

*Same with wood - I don't chop wood until I need it, but keep plenty of fully grown trees ready for that 27/28 wood order for the train delivery. Sometimes, not often, you get 2 wood from one saw. Again, you're taking up extra room in your barn.

Okay, that's a start - I'm interested to hear others' strategies.

Great thread, tankerslacers!

Here are some ideas that work for me:

- never stock milk, eggs, simple syrup, wheat or corn, and only small quantities of bacon and wool, tomatoes and potatoes, cheese, bread, corn bread, white sugar;

- rather stock fish bait than go fishing - sometimes you get 2 fish with one bait, especially the spicy one;

- use up expansion materials (hammers, wood, nails etc.) as soon as possible.... usually for barn and silo expansion;);

- keep one slot in the side shop either open or filled with something that sells quickly or can be discarded without remorse (wheat, corn, a couple of eggs or milk bottles) - in case I need to make more space and sell something quickly, like I will gladly sacrifice 10 of bacon or wool if I find 10 jars of honey on the market;

- I do not stock silver (mine is a silver mine), but I hoard gold and turn iron into tools as soon as it comes in;

- I also sell out most of the stocked up items that a train does not use and make more of them in the 12 hours period before the next train;

- if I am really tight pressed, I keep items in the buildings where they are made (I once had over 20 red scarves sitting in front of the studio...) - but that's *****ing, isn't it?..

- keep enough pet and alpaca food for one feeding, never stock feed for cows and chicken, and although I do not always have enough sheep or pig feed (I also need 12 of each), I always make sure I have a full batch in the food mills when I leave the game - I can usually make space for it either by putting something up for sale in the side shop, or making some other items when I re-enter the game.


I would love to see what works for other people...

How can I get rid of old goal items like peppermint and St. Patrick's day things? No one would buy them.

If you put the in your market stormie will buy them after a certain time

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Originally Posted by kc4388

- if I am really tight pressed, I keep items in the buildings where they are made (I once had over 20 red scarves sitting in front of the studio...) - but that's *****ing, isn't it?..

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How do you make more without collecting the items that are already sitting there?

I also do most of your strategies.

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Originally Posted by Jnny2good

How do you make more without collecting the items that are already sitting there?

I also do most of your strategies.

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If you barn is full you can craft more items without collecting the items that are ready.

My space is definitely limited...I'm at level 37 and, due to a lack of expansion parts, only have 335 slots in my barn and 365 in my silo. So...

- as mentioned, I often end up leaving items sitting at their buildings until I have space to store them. I also end up leaving some crops unharvested for the same reason. Right now my peanut crop has been sitting on their plots for over a week because I have no use for them yet (can't make peanut butter yet). I also leave behind peppers (they rarely show up in my orders) and cocoa beans (I have 5 trees, but because they harvest so quickly, the Chocolatier--2 slots open--can't keep up).

- if I have space in the barn, I start crafting what I can to use up produce, like juices, sugars, baits, etc. If spacein the barn is limited, I start crafting to use up what I can, even if I don't need them at the moment, like scarves, hats, and belts, or cheese, cream, and butter, or candles. If space in both barn and silo is limited, I focus on crafting items that use up items from both, like pizzas, jellies, baked potatoes, stew, etc.

- I only have 4 of each livestock animal (except the alpaca - haven't repaired the pen yet), and they produce enough of what I need for now. I also have oe dog. All that animal food, however, is problematic. I only have two feed mills with 3 open slots each, so when I collect milk, etc. from the animals, I use up the animal feed and start another cycle on both mills: cow feed, chicken feed, pig feed, then collect the cow feed and start the sheep feed. By only producing what I need, I usually manage to avoid overstocking. Usually I'll have to make a second batch of cow feed and chicken feed before either the pig feed or sheep feed gets used, so I'll do a round of pet feed as well (this usually only once per day)--I keep pet feed at a minimum of 4 in stock.

- in order to keep inventories down, I try to keep things going out through the Side Shop. I don't sell large quantities - normally only 2 of one item at a time...these seem to sell out faster than the larger quantities would, perhaps because the prices aren't as intimidating and possibly because most plane orders usually ask for small quantities of items. If I have too much produce in the silo--especially cocoa beans and apples, but sometimes peppers as well--I will sell these in quantities of 5. Again, these amounts seem to sell quickly. Because of the quick sakes--sometimes before I have finished filling all five slots in my Side Shop--I can often keep inventories down.

- I do not try to completely fill a train order. I will usually make the effort to fill one requirement (e.g., 29 tomatoes, 24 sugar cane, etc.) and then ignore it. If I know I will have time to pay attention to the crafting (i.e., when I'm not at work), I will try to do some of the crafted items IF the components are not too time-heavy and if the items themselves will not take too long (e.g., BLTs). In this case, I'll try to get the 2 gems, but won't try for more.

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Originally Posted by PookieBear50

- as mentioned, I often end up leaving items sitting at their buildings until I have space to store them. I also end up leaving some crops unharvested for the same reason. Right now my peanut crop has been sitting on their plots for over a week because I have no use for them yet (can't make peanut butter yet). I also leave behind peppers (they rarely show up in my orders) and cocoa beans (I have 5 trees, but because they harvest so quickly, the Chocolatier--2 slots open--can't keep up).

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I find that if you sell cocoa beans a little below market price, they disappear pretty quickly - and you can make at least a couple hundreds a day just from that. So I just harvest them as they show up and put them up for sale.

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Originally Posted by kc4388

I find that if you sell cocoa beans a little below market price, they disappear pretty quickly - and you can make at least a couple hundreds a day just from that. So I just harvest them as they show up and put them up for sale.

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I usually sell 5 cocoa beans at market price. They do go out quickly, but if I'm stockpiling another produce item--like for the train order--I'll leave them on the tree until I can clear out the other produce. And as for the Chocolatier, it's debatable which is the better option, making 2 dark chocolate (using up 6 cocoa beans and opening up that many spaces in the silo) or chocolate oranges (which uses up only 4 cocoa beans but also 4 oranges, opening up 8 spaces, but taking longer to make).

But I will always harvest lemons, simply because they take so long to mature compared to everything else. And blackberries and herbs.

Great tips, all! Thanks. I also sell off easily/quickly produced items at a big discount & small amounts of popular items at/above market price. These sell really fast.

I especially like the tip about not keeping quickly produced items (wheat, corn, milk, etc.). ����