Imagine wandering the Minecraft world and getting too busy exploring that you can’t remember which direction you came from. I don’t know about you, but I have been in this situation an embarrassing number of times. Fortunately, Minecraft provides you with multiple in-game solutions to help you find the way back to your house. We will cover some of the most common ways, along with some out-of-the-box solutions you can use to find your house in Minecraft quickly and easily.
Find Your House in Minecraft (Updated April 2022)
All the methods described in this article work on both Minecraft Java and Bedrock edition. We’ve also tested their usefulness on the latest Minecraft 1.18 update, so you can rest assured about the compatibility. With that said, if you actually want to get lost while wandering, go and check out the best Minecraft seeds to access some of the best worlds to do so. And for the ones already lost, let’s go over every single way to find your house in Minecraft. There can be multiple situations and ways you can get lost. So, the table below will help you find solutions that best cater to your situation.
What is a Minecraft House & How to Make One?
A Minecraft house, in practical terms, is the place where your bed stays in-game. In Minecraft, beds are used to set spawn points. So, whenever your player dies, it respawns you at the location where you last slept. Extending on that, players create useful structures, which we call houses with storage, farms, and more. You can refer to our article for the best house design ideas in Minecraft to get your creative juices flowing.
Coming to its creation, we already have a guide in place to teach you how to make a house in Minecraft. Use this linked guide to quickly and easily build yourself a home. As for players that are already lost, let’s work on getting you back home in the next section.
Find Your Minecraft House Using a Compass
Compasses only have one function in Minecraft, and that is to help you find your home. The compass’s needle always points towards your world spawn point. So, if you built a house at your spawn, the compass can help you find it. However, you can also change your spawn point manually using a Lodestone. But more than later.
Minecraft Compass Crafting Recipe
To make a compass, you need Redstone dust and 4 iron ingots. Once you get them, you need to place the Redstone dust in the middle of the crafting area on a Crafting table. Then, you place iron ingots on all four sides of the Redstone dust, leaving the corners of the crafting area empty. And if you follow this recipe, your compass will be ready for use. Alternatively, you can also get a compass from chest loots and by trading with villagers.
How to Use a Compass
Irrespective of where you are in the Minecraft world, the compass needle will always point towards your world spawn point. Then, you only need to travel towards the direction where your compass needle is pointing to reach the spawn point. You can even hold the compass in your off-hand by pressing the “F” key on your PC for easier navigation.
Change Spawn Point with Lodestone
Minecraft allows players to use a Lodestone to change their world spawn point. It is a simple block that resets your compass so that it points toward the location of the Lodestone. So you can use a compass to find your base even if it’s not built upon the world spawn. Just make sure not to break the Lodestone.
You need 8 pieces of chiseled stone bricks placed on the border of the crafting area and 1 piece of netherite ingot in the middle. Once it’s ready, you need to use your compass on the Lodestone to connect them. Then instead of pointing towards the world spawn, the compass will point to your Lodestone. It works in all three in-game dimensions.
Respawn at Your House in Minecraft
Another way to reach your Minecraft house or your bed is by respawning. Similar to the compass, this method only works if you have slept at least once on the bed in your house. To respawn, as you can guess, you need to get yourself killed. From lava to hostile mobs, we all know that Minecraft offers plenty of ways to get killed.
But, to avoid losing your progress, make sure to do the following first:
- Make a chest and store all the items from your inventory in it.
- Note down the coordinates of the location of your death. You can come back to collect your items and continue your exploration.
- If you have a pet with you, make sure to tie it using lead or trap it within a block structure so that you can come back and get them.
Teleport to Your House in Minecraft
The easiest way to find your Minecraft house if you are lost is by using its coordinates. Even though most of you might not keep a record, you can easily teleport to your house if you have penned down the coordinates. The coordinates can be turned on via the world settings on the Bedrock edition. And Minecraft Java players can check out the coordinates by pressing the “F3” key.
Once you have written your spawn point coordinates, you can freely explore the Minecraft world. Then, to get back, you just need to enter “/tp x y z” command in your in-game chat to teleport to your house. Here, x, y, and z are axis coordinates of your house’s location. If you wish to learn all about how to teleport in Minecraft, follow the linked guide.
How to Find Your House Without a Spawn point
All the above-mentioned methods only work if you already have the spawn point set to your house or if you have its coordinates. But if you have absolutely no idea where your house is, the following methods might help.
Look for Hints and Trace Your Way
Put on your detective hats because the first way to find your Minecraft house is by going Sherlock. You can use the following tricks to look for hints and track your way back:
- Thanks to the new update, Minecraft now has a predictable terrain generation. So, any blocks placed out of the ordinary indicate a player’s presence there.
- You can also kill yourself to start from the world spawn point. Then, from that point, you can try going the route as earlier until you find your house.
- If you went to any villages, then villagers’ looted chests, broken houses, and the absence of an iron golem (if it hasn’t respawned) might indicate your presence.
- You can get lucky if you made a Nether portal near your house. The world in the Nether is much smaller than the overworld. So, if you can find your old Nether portal, you might directly reach your house. Thanks to the inconsistent terrain generation, it is easy to find the path you take in the Nether.
Look for Light Sources
One of the most common features of all Minecraft houses is the use of light sources. Players place torches, campfires, and even lanterns to light their houses. This same light can be used to find the house from a distance. But this trick only works at night when the world is darker, and the light sources are more prominent.
You can even use one of the best Minecraft shaders to push the graphics and make it easier to locate your house. They allow you to increase the brightness of light sources while making nights darker. So, you will have to get on higher ground, wait for nighttime, and look for light sources at a distance. Other than your house, only villages and lava sources will emit such light. And not to forget, increasing your render distance in the video settings also helps.
Bonus: Use Minecraft Log Files to Locate Your House
If everything else fails, you can also access your house’s location using the game’s log files. But this solution to find your house only works in these two conditions:
- You are using Minecraft on your PC
- You have logged into your world or exited it while being inside the house
If you satisfy both of these conditions, you can find your house’s coordinates in Minecraft’s log files. To do so, use the following steps:
1. To begin, open the Minecraft install location. The default location is %appdata%\.minecraft\
2. Then, you need to look for a file called “latest_log” or “launcher_log“. The file’s name depends upon your version and edition of the game. You can open the file in notepad by double-clicking on it.
3. After opening the file, you need to search for the “logged in with entity” code line. It will have the spawn coordinates of your latest login, and it might lead you to your Minecraft house.
Tips on How Not to Get Lost in Minecraft
Now that you have learned multiple ways to find your house, it’s time to go over some precautionary measures to avoid getting lost in the Minecraft world.
Take Note of Coordinates
The easiest thing to do during world exploration in Minecraft is to take note of your home’s coordinates. You can view coordinates by turning them on in the world settings on the Bedrock edition. And Java players can turn them on by pressing the “F3” key.
Build Tall Structures
Unless you are already building on top of a mountain (using one of our best Minecraft 1.18 mountain seeds), you could add a tall tower-like structure to your house. Doing so will allow you to locate it from a distance. You can also add light sources on top of the structure to make it easier to find at night.
Put Beacons on House
If you are building your house later in the game, you can even build a beacon (guide on how to make a beacon coming soon). The light released by beacons is visible from a huge distance as long as your render distance is high.
Set Spawn Point
The simplest way to ensure you don’t lose your Minecraft house is to make it your spawn point. You can do so by crafting and placing a bed in your house and sleeping in it at least once. Check out the recipe above to craft a bed in Minecraft. But after leaving the house, if you sleep in some other location, the spawn point will switch to that location. So, even though it’s the easiest, this method is not fool-proof.
Make a Map
Finally, doing it the way Minecraft intends you to keep track of your house location, you can make a map in Minecraft. It allows you to capture a limited but large view of an area in your Minecraft world. If your house is big enough, it will be easy to locate using a map. But keep in mind that maps can’t help you find underground bases. However, you can follow the guide linked here to craft bigger maps and mark important locations, such as your house, on the map with ease.
Lost in Minecraft? Locate Your House with These Easy Methods!
Minecraft exploration will be now easier than ever for you with all the tricks to find a house in Minecraft at your disposal. But don’t keep this guide to yourself and help your friend find their house easily. Additionally, you can use these tips to explore the best Minecraft seeds more freely. On the other hand, if you don’t want to go into complex processes to get home, you can also opt for one of the best Minecraft mods. Though, they will only work after you install Optifine in your Minecraft Java edition. With that said, mod or no mod, you are now more than ready to take your exploration to the next level. And if you have more ideas to add, share them in the comments section!
