40d:Container

Containers are, typically enough, boxes (or barrels, or bins, or even bags) made out of a solid material and are used to hold everything from personal possessions, to gems, to beer, to quarry bush leaves [25], and even living creatures. Their use is context-sensitive, so you cannot use your barrels for storing coins.

Barrels, bins and bags

Barrels are wooden or metal containers that are useful for storing items in a food stockpile and are used for alcohol, 2nd-stage cooking items (dwarven syrup, quarry bush leaves, flour and dye), cooked food in a stack of 10 or less, fat and tallow, plants, meat, and fish. They are also used to store seeds (and bags filled with seeds).

Bins are containers, again made from wood or metal, used for for most non-food items. They are sent to all the other stockpiles (with exclusion to the refuse and graveyard piles) and will hold much larger stacks of items, making organizing those endless piles of +giant cave spider silk cloth+ much easier to manage.

Bags are some of the most widely-used containers in dwarf fortress, due to their use as both seed preservation and sand collection. These are only made from plant fiber or animal (silk) cloth, leather, or adamantine. Bags can be built as furniture and function as coffers (below).

Cabinets and coffers

These two containers are both furniture items. They must be built in rooms assigned to dwarves in order to function properly. Cabinets are used to store clothing, and coffers are used to store everything else.

A wooden coffer is called a chest, and a glass coffer is called a box, but they are used for the same purpose. Bags can be built as coffers.