Tutorials/Shelters

There are several things every Minecraft shelter should have.

This is the single most important room and should be the first one built. A kitchen should include a crafting table, at least one furnace, and at least one chest containing key crafting materials.
 * A Kitchen

This is important if you are a big miner and every miner should have one. Something that looks best in the basement of your house is to make a big room (7x7x7) and line the walls with furnaces. The benefit of having multiple furnaces is to parallelize smelting, allowing the job to be completed much faster.
 * A Furnace-room

A room full of chests for storing all of the dirt, cobblestone and other materials that accumulates in your inventory while mining.
 * A Storeroom

It's generally a good idea to put the entrance to your mine inside your shelter. If you return at night, you won't have to make a mad dash to your house.
 * The Entrance to Your Mine

Since Beta version 1.3, beds are available. Beds serve to skip the night, but also as spawnpoint. In a future update, if you die, you'll be spawned by the last bed you slept in.
 * A Bedroom

A room with a lava pit, for disposing of unwanted materials. To be cautious about burning death and fire hazards, keep it at least 5 blocks away from all flammables, and then make a 3*3 space out of non-flammable blocks, with the lava in the center. Remove one corner, put a block on the -opposite- corner, and make an overhang so there is only 1 space of air over the lava. You now have a fireplace / incinerator with 0 risk. Or, if you would rather not risk fire or death, even slightly, put a 3x3 pit (4 deep) with water sources in each corner, a sand block in the middle of the floor and a cactus on that. Another alternative is to dig 3 blocks down, and create a 7 block long trench with a pit at the end. Put a ladder on the end of the last block before the pit and put lava in the pit. Then add a water spring on the first block of the trench, and cover the trench up except for the first block. Here is an example: ABBBBBBBB WRRRRRRRA BBBBBBBBL A=Air, B=any non-burnable and non-gravitational block, W=water spring, R=water run-off, L=lava spring Watch a video tutorial here: Video Link
 * An Incinerator

Since spiders can climb walls some form of a ceiling overhang is a good idea to have.
 * An Overhang

Other Ideas
There are any number of things to add to your shelter and here are just a few of them (ideas needed, don't feel shy to add stuff!)

1. Add underground floors to your shelter.

Using this gives you a chance to find resources, and, in the case of invasion by mobs, it will always provide a safer spot.

2. Add aboveground floors to your shelter.

It is normally advised to do this after building underground floors if you have a lack of resources. This could even give you a chance to "snipe" some creepers and spiders in the morning.

3. Build a mob pit.

Basically, a 3 wide and 2 down pit around your houses preventing mobs getting too close for comfort, which can later be expanded into a mob killer (requires lots of ladders).

4. Build a perimeter.

Adding torches around your base can reduce the amount of monsters that spawn nearby, so add some light to your lawn! To stop monsters from getting to your base completely, consider surrounding your base with a large wall or moat (if using lava, take care to destroy all nearby wood and remove nearby water). Bonus points if your moat leads to a mob grinder, providing a free source of mob drops AND effective protection! You can also use netherstone and cacti to keep mobs out.

5. Make a farm extension.

Look at the farming tutorial for more on this.

6. Remake it out of a different material.

So much potential here!

7. Make a base in a new location.

Having more than one base helps if you need to travel farther to get resources. A base next to your spawn point is helpful if you built your main base somewhere else.

8. An emergency kit.

In case you fall in lava and lose your gear.

9. Add an escape tunnel.

You never know, that creeper might one day get you. Bonus points if the tunnel leads to your secondary base.

10. Add a dispenser turret.

Put a dispenser with some arrows at your desired location (preferably next to a door) and a Stone Button/Lever/Pressure Plate attached to it. This is handy if mobs want to pay you a visit.

11. Make a panic room/bunker.

Put tnt throughout your base and have redstone leading to your panic room. It is recommended that your bunker's walls, ceiling, and floor are made of obsidian, that your bunker contains at least basic supplies, and that it is connected to your escape tunnel.

11. Make an underground farm and tree grower.

If you have a shelter underground, it might be a good idea to have these as returning to the surface may be tough and dangerous. Make sure your farming room is well lit and (for tree farming) has at least 5 free blocks upwards. To maximize farm growth, Glowstone is brighter than normal torches.

12. Make an indoor animal farm

Works well if you built a large structure (such as a castle) on grass, simply light up the ground level and passive mobs will spawn inside your home every day, so you can hunt without any risks

13. Lava lamp

Simply make a hollow space out of glass and fill it with lava. An efficient method is to run a vertical column through many floors powered by a single lava block at the top. Try not to carry a sword when around glass blocks, in case you accidentally click the left mouse button.

14. Obsidian Farm

Natural obsidian is dangerous to mine, let alone finding it. Make at least a 1x7 enclosed pit. The easiest way to get lava is in The Nether, but be careful! Pour the lava in the farthest block-space and immediately place a block to stop the flow. Delete and pour the next bucket. Repeat until it is completely filled, then make a safe way to pour the water in and you'll be obsidian rich!

15. ANOTHER Storeroom

After a few days worth of play time, you will start to run out of space. Continue making more places to store your dirt and stone, or better yet, dig 2 blocks under the original chest and place the new chest there (you need space for it to be able to open it).

16. Organize

Always organize your items. It will make getting what you need very easy. My suggestion is to organize it like so: Also, put signs above your chests for easy sorting.
 * Dirt/Organic
 * Stone/Stairs
 * Wood/Sticks
 * Mob Items/Drops
 * Tools/Weapons (including armor)
 * Netherstuff
 * Dyes/Wool
 * Ingots/Furnace Stuff
 * Mining Equipment (can include pickaxes, shovels, buckets, torches, ladders, etc.)
 * Food
 * Sand/Gravel
 * Farming (can include hoes, seeds, wheat, sugar cane, bread, etc.)
 * Man-made/Mechanisms
 * Decoration

17. Minecart Hub

If you have active mines scattered over the place and use Minecarts to haul your stuff back to your base, dig out a universal stopping point under your base.

17.2. Subway Station

If you have multiple bases and want to quickly travel between them, You can put a Subway in your hub, One of the requirements is patience though, because building this is not a easy task.

18. Traps

If you're not satisfied with moats or a perimeter fence, consider adding a trap or two.

19. Quarry

A Quarry yields very large amounts of materials to make your buildings, but it is very hard to make and can require several days of gameplay.

20. Indoor fishing pond

This is very easy to make, but can be very useful. Just make a hole long enough to cast your fishing rod (the fishing page suggests 8 blocks long, but for this method it would be better to make it longer), and fill it with water. It is suggested that you make your hole 8 blocks deep, and place the water at the fourth block up. If you are standing 4 blocks above the water when you fish, the fish will come to you and you won't have to collect them afterward.

21. Mining shaft sunroof

Making a sunroof that points directly down your mining shaft has its advantages, you will be able to tell the time of day more easily, and burn mobs like the zombie and skeleton.

Redstone Add-Ons
1. Beacon

Requirements: 5 redstone, 4 sticks, 5 cobblestone (dependant upon height) Place one block and cover each side with a redstone torch, next place redstone ontop of this block, finally place a block above each torch. This will cause a random off/on effect making the redstone torches blink, Construct this at higher altitudes so no trees or cliffs can keep it out of your sight. When leaving the game on singleplayer the redstone torches will turn off and no longer blink, Upon relog this will require some maitenance

2. Doorbell

Mobs entering your house without you knowing is a pain, That's why you need a doorbell. Requirements: 1 Redstone, 11 wooden planks. First craft 2 planks into a wooden presure plate, Now take your wood and restone and craft a note block, Place the presure plate on your entrance and the noteblock beside it, When a mob or player steps upon the plate the note block will play a sound, You can make this more safisticated making chimes or even a whole song that play upon entering.