To store items on your ship in Starfield, you mainly use the ship’s Cargo Hold and the Captain’s Locker , plus a few extra tricks.

Basic cargo hold storage (quick method)

  1. Go inside your ship.
  2. Open your character inventory (default: I on PC, Menu button on controller).
  1. Switch to the Cargo Hold view :
    • PC: press Q
    • Controller: press LB
      This brings up the ship cargo screen.
  1. Press the same key again to flip to your own inventory with the intention to deposit items.
  1. Highlight anything you want to store and press:
    • PC: E
    • Controller: A
      The item moves from your inventory into the ship’s cargo.

You must be on or near your ship for this to work, either inside or close enough for the cargo menu to be available.

Using the cargo console in the cockpit

If you don’t want to go through menus, you can use the cockpit console:

  • Go into the cockpit.
  • Look for a small “Cargo Hold” screen on a side wall near the pilot’s seat (easy to miss). Interact with it to open ship storage.
  • From that screen, switch to your inventory and transfer items into the cargo, just like any other container.

This is especially handy right after looting, before you sit down to fly.

Captain’s locker (extra container)

Most ships also have a Captain’s Locker :

  • It’s usually near the cockpit , often behind or beside the pilot’s seat.
  • Look directly at the locker until the interaction prompt appears.
  • Press the Transfer key (PC: often R) to open its inventory.
  • Press Q to open your own inventory, then move items into the locker.

The Captain’s Locker is separate from the Cargo Hold, so you can use it to keep special gear, quest items, or valuables organized.

Note: To remove items from the locker, you have to physically interact with it; its contents are not merged with cargo in the menus.

What you can store

Nearly everything that isn’t another ship can go into ship storage, including:

  • Weapons and throwables
  • Spacesuits, helmets, boost packs, apparel
  • Ammo
  • Aid items (meds, food, chems)
  • Notes
  • Resources and crafting materials
  • Miscellaneous junk

The only exception is you can’t store an entire ship inside your ship.

Accessing ship cargo from menus

You can also manage storage without walking to the console every time:

  • Open the map/pause menu , select your ship , then choose Cargo (button at the bottom of the screen).
  • From the cargo menu, switch over to your inventory and deposit items directly, as long as you’re within the required range of the ship (often a few hundred meters).

Players on early ships like the Frontier often rely on this method to avoid running back and forth.

Extra storage tricks

If you’re really drowning in loot, there are a couple of “emergency” options:

  • Hab containers: Many hab modules come with small storage containers, boxes, and bins you can store items in, separate from the cargo hold.
  • Dropping items on the ship floor: You can literally drop gear on the floor of your ship; the game remembers where you placed it, and it doesn’t count toward cargo weight, though it can get messy.

These are good for short‑term hoarding until you upgrade to a larger cargo hold.

Example setup flow

Here’s a simple loop a lot of players use:

  1. Land at a planet or station, do your looting.
  2. Return to your ship encumbered.
  3. Go into the cockpit, interact with the Cargo Hold screen.
  1. Open your inventory, dump all heavy resources, extra guns, and spare suits into cargo.
  2. Keep only your main weapons and a light set of gear on your character.

This keeps you mobile while turning your ship into a mobile warehouse.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.