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Smart, Simple Industrial Design: Muji's Modular Bi-Directional Desktop Storage Units

Useful, affordable, versatile

By Rain Noe - November 10, 2022

in Organization

These basic-looking wooden storage units from Muji seem minimalist and not much more, but they pull a well-considered trick.

Each drawer in this 6x1 unit is half of a square high. So the unit can be turned on its side, and still accommodates the drawers.

This 3x1 unit with square drawers can do the same. In one of the images you can better see the grooves cut into the interior, which serve as the drawer slides in both orientations.

There's also a single-drawer unit.

All three units use the same housing (252mm wide, 170mm tall, 84mm deep) allowing Muji to enjoy economies of scale while the end user can arrange them in a variety of configurations.

The 6x1 unit runs ¥2,990 (USD $20.50), the 3x1 is ¥2,490 ($17) and the one-drawer runs ¥1,990 ($13.65).

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Scott Brown

4 months ago

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what jumps out to me is the incongruity of the drawers in their closed and open states.
all of the photos show closed drawers more or less touching or resting upon the table surface, but in the photos showing drawers in an open position, the bottom edge of the drawer front is somehow 3-4 mm above the desk surface... in defiance of basic cabinetmaking principles, and of physics in general.
if the grooves in the case are tight enough to hold the drawer up in that extended position, they're too tight and will bite and bind.

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Scott Carpenter

4 months ago

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So clever

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