Getting rid of junk in Minecraft is essential, especially when you’re on a long Minecraft run.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways to remove objects you drop on the ground using tools, in-game resources, and commands.

Some plugins and mods can also help you with this issue, giving you the option to clear items individually or all at once.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to clear dropped items in Minecraft in almost every possible way.

How Dropped Items Work

When you (or any in-game entity) drops an item in Minecraft, it becomes a floating miniature version of itself. If you approach this item, you’ll automatically grab it and transfer it to your inventory.

These are known as “dropped items”.

Dropped items can be created in multiple ways, one of which is when you lose all of your HP.

After your character perishes, their items will be scattered around the location. It can be valuable, or even essential, to retrieve any assets from the floor before trying any of the methods we’ll discuss.

Dropped items spawn when you defeat an entity or simply when you throw away items from your inventory.

How to Drop Items

You can drop any item by simply selecting the item in your toolbar and pressing Q or CTRL+Q. Also, you can click the item in your inventory window and drag it out by holding the cursor over it.

These methods work on the Minecraft Java Edition.

Easy Ways to Erase Dropped Items

There are various ways of clearing the items you drop.

There are a few Minecraft in-game things that you can use to clear and delete your items. Of course, some are easier to find than others, but they all are effective.

Lava and Fire

One of the most popular ways of clearing your items in Minecraft is by throwing them in lava or fire.

You can usually find lava in caves and sometimes on the surface. Moreover, you can collect it with a bucket and build your own trash can lava pit.

However, in Bedrock Edition, you can obtain it via glitches or add-ons.

Throw the items you want to get rid of into the lava pit. As a result, anything you throw will burn for a second and then disappear.

Furthermore, you can create a fire to do this. To light a fire you can use flint and steel or a fire charge to light something on fire, or you can make a campfire. It works either way.

Netherrack is best used if you don’t have a campfire, because the fire will not go out.

Drop your items on the fire or the campfire, and they will disappear after a few seconds.

Flint and steel

The flint and steel method works similarly to the lava and fire method. The only difference is that you burn the items while on the ground.

Point the flint and steel at the items on the ground and press the right click on your mouse; it should start a fire. Then press the left click on your mouse to hit it and extinguish it.

Beware of doing this in forest areas since the fire can spread.

Cactus

You can usually find cacti in desert biomes. However, sometimes you can find them in village chests, dungeon chests, etc. 

Throw the item onto the cactus, and it will disappear. Plain and simple.

TNT

TNT is the most effective and destructive method. Place TNT beside the items and ignite it with flint and steel or a redstone torch.

Consequentially, it will blow up the dropped items and the surfaces below and around it.

The Void

The Void method can be time-consuming for some players. Picking up and dropping items into the void will make them disappear. Moreover, you can find the void in the End dimension.

In addition to in-game resources, there are multiple commands you can type in your chat that can clear dropped items.

Chat Commands

Firstly, press the T key on your keyboard to open the chat. You can change this hotkey in the game settings.

One of the most popular and fastest ways to clear items is the kill command. First, type /kill @e[type=item] in the chat and press enter to remove all dropped items in your Minecraft world instantly.

However, you will need to have operator status and enable cheats in your world for this command to work. 

If you want to erase items in a certain radius, then type “/kill @e[type=item,distance=N],” where N is the range in blocks you want to clear.

For instance, you want to clear all dropped items within a 15-block radius. In this case, you must type in your chat the following command: “/kill @e[type=item,distance=15].”

The following command is the fill command.

To run this order, type in your chat: “/fill XYZ XYZ air”, and it will make your items disappear. The two sets of coordinates determine the area where you’ve dropped the objects.

Furthermore, there is one more reliable method, which we’ll discuss next.

Plugins

There are various plugins available online that help you with clearing dropped items. However, it is best to download them from reliable sources. 

One of the best open-source and free software programs for extending Minecraft servers is Bukkit. The plugin has straightforward tools for manipulating the server, including one responsible for clearing dropped items.

Another excellent plugin is ClearDroppedItems, via Bukkit, which successfully does the job of clearing dropped items and has straightforward commands: /cd, /cd clear, /cd nearby <radius>, /cd timer <time in seconds>.

Also, EasyCleanup is a simple mod that helps you clear dropped items in your world.

The mod has two simple commands to assist you in this matter. The /cleanup command will clear them entirely, and /cleanup <radius> will clear items in a certain radius.

Leave them be!

When you drop items on the ground, they disappear within five minutes.

However, different objects have different despawning periods. Furthermore, if you get far away from the items, they will automatically vanish.