I'm trying to find out how to make encumbrance work in 5e for more games but I feel like either they have two little spaces or too much space. I tried making my own but I'm having issues with caring equipment. I don't know if I should try and fix it or leave it out, it just doesn't feel like it's needed. 

EQUIPMENT

A player has 10 slots, plus their Strength Mod (Mod not Score) this is their Personal equipment if you go over it You put your items in to. store equipment which is 10 slots plus your Strength Mod and you get affected by Storage rules win you fill your store equipment. the player must put it into caring equipment; it has another 10 slots plus your Strength mod. When you do this you become affected by Strain rules.

 Slots

Each slot can hold up to 5 lb anything that weighs more than 1 lb takes up more space and anything that weighs More than 5 lb takes up more slots. You have a total of 30 slots not counting strength  and you can hold up to 150 lb 

Personal equipment (Easy Access Items) 

These are things you have readily on hand, be it in your hands, a belt pouch, sheath, quiver, or hanging on the side of your pack. A character has up to 10 slots that are Easy Access. Everything else is packed away, or not readily accessible. You do not need to use all of these, but these are the things you can access while in combat quickly.

Example items you would put in your accessible items include. Weapons, Quivers of Ammo, Potions, Holy Symbols, Arcane Focuses, Spell Components, Shields,

stored equipment

After your Personal equipment is full you must put it into stored equipment win you do this it is considered packed away in a backpack, satchel or or in Some storage device.

Storage rules

 These are things you are carrying with you but will take some time To get out Storage rules only happen When you try and get items from stored equipment  during  combat. During combat It takes a action To take anything out of stored equipment When you are not in combat you can access them normally 

caring equipment

After your stored equipment is full you must put it into caring equipment win you do thisYou are straightening yourself to put more things into your bags and to carry a heavier load. 

Strain rules

When a  creature puts items into carrying equipment they become strained and have disadvantage on saving throws  and checks with strength and dexterity  if caring equipment becomes filled you cannot carry anything else and you get a -15 to your speed And Items are not Usable during combat 

Adding your strength 

When adding your strength modifier You add the That many slots to each equipment if you have a negative strength modifier you take that many slots away from all The equipment 

Example:If I have a strength modifier plus 2 which I would give two slots to all my  equipment And if I had a  -2  I would take away two slots from each one 

Large and small creatures 

A large Creature can hold one extra pound per slot Why a small creature can hold one less pound per slot 

Example:A halfling can hold 4 lb per slot why a Goliath can hold 6 lbs per slot

Worn Non-Encumbering Items

Clothing and Jewelry that is worn, requires no slots. It is however not also easily accessible. If an item of clothing or Jewelry needs to be quickly accessed like a holy symbol it needs to be tracked in the player's easy access slots. A players outfit (underclothing, tunic, pants, a robe are bundled together) takes one slot if not worn. 

Coin Pouch

100 gold equal 1 lb so a slot of coins would be 500 gold

here's a sheet to track it

Sounds needlessly complicated compared to the canon rules.

Thanks for the feedback I'm going to try simplifying it but the rules are just not that good in 5e. Most people just don't use it which is a shame because it makes your players think about what they are carrying.

The reason most people don't use it has more to do with most people not finding inventory management puzzles to actually be fun.

And also, as soon as the party gets a Bag of Holding it makes inventory management largely irrelevant.

The main reason we don't do encumbrance is because it's annoying, fiddly and doesn't contribute to the fun. Adding stuff and removing it, altering your weight totals...yeah, it's not fun. We just track the big things, like magic items and weapons. Weight is just ignored.

If it's your jam to do these kinds of intricate systems, then go for it! What I find fun isn't going to be the same as your idea of entertainment. But I think you'll find that the majority of players who don't use the rules are like me - it's just too fiddly and effort consuming while not really bringing anything to the table. These rules look interesting, but won't resolve those issues - instead, they'll probably exacerbate them.

Thank you so much, that is great feedback and you are so right about most players not liking it. I still want some form of encumbrance.  But if you know a simple way to do it I would love to know.

If you are set on doing this thing go ahead and try it! You never know,, your players might like it. I will tell you though 10 thins is SUPER limiting. I know because I am currently in a campaign that does this. Every weapon is 1, every ration is 1, every bottle is 1. Look at your current characters and see how many line items you have. Then look at how many of those items are actually (10) torches or (10) rations.

Again, whatever floats your boat.

I would look at WOW and Diablo models. They have had various sized bags which could hold X number of slots. Some items like armor - if you looted some, would count as 2 or more slots. That way you could say a pouch has 2 slots, large pouch 3, backpack 8, special backpack 10, bag of holding 100, or whatever...

I agree with the ‘way too complicated’ theme.  We use encumbrance rules but just exclude the backpack.