MUJI Polypropylene Storage Drawers: How to Pick the Right Size

MUJI's translucent polypropylene drawers are the boxes underneath most of the tidy Japanese closets you have scrolled past. They are cheap, they stack, and they come in a handful of footprints that were designed around Japanese closet depths. The catch for a US buyer is that the size you see in those photos is not always the size MUJI sells here, and the names are different on both sides.

This guide uses the measurements, load limits, stacking limits, and prices published on muji.us, checked on September 7, 2026. The photos are Japanese homes using these drawers; they show how the units get combined and what fits inside them, not how common they are or which one performs better.

Quick answer

• Small items on a shelf or in a cabinet: the Polypropylene Case at W10.2 x D14.6 inches. It is the only family sold one at a time.
• Folded clothes on a closet floor: the Polypropylene Storage Drawer at W13.4 x D17.5 inches. It holds the most weight and stacks the highest.
• A wide run under a shelf: the Polypropylene Storage Wide Drawer at W21.7 x D17.5 inches. Fewer columns, but each drawer is rated for less weight.
• You want the deep one from the photos: that is the Polypropylene Storage Clothing Drawer at W15.7 x D25.6 inches, and every height of it was sold out on muji.us on September 7, 2026.
• Budget the surcharge: the storage drawers ship with a $15 oversized handling fee per piece and must be bought two at a time.

The four footprints, and what MUJI calls them here

MUJI Japan names these cases by their centimeter footprint, and MUJI USA renames them in inches. The units are the same shape, so the reliable way to match a Japanese setup is to compare the footprint in centimeters instead of the product name.

The 26 by 37 cm case becomes the Polypropylene Case. The 34 by 44.5 cm storage case becomes the Polypropylene Storage Drawer. The 55 by 44.5 cm wide case becomes the Polypropylene Storage Wide Drawer. The deep 40 by 65 cm clothing case becomes the Polypropylene Storage Clothing Drawer, which is the family currently out of stock.

Only two depths matter in practice. Everything except the small case is 17.5 inches deep or more, which is why these units belong on a closet floor rather than on an open shelf; the small case at 14.6 inches deep is the one that fits a vanity cabinet or a bookshelf.

How the three in-stock sizes compare

Our picks

Pick #1: Polypropylene Case 2 Drawer, for small goods you sort

This is the one to buy first if what you actually have is a drawerful of small things. It measures W10.2 x D14.6 x H6.9 inches, comes with dividers, and is sold singly in clear, white, or gray at $29.90, so you can buy one, see whether the depth suits you, and add more later. MUJI rates each drawer at about 4.4 lbs and allows a stack of six.

Best for: medicine, chargers and cables, stationery, cosmetics, sewing supplies, anything you want divided rather than piled.

Avoid if: you are storing clothing. At 6.9 inches tall and about 4.4 lbs per drawer, it is the wrong tool for sweaters, and the 14.6 inch depth wastes space on a 17.5 inch deep closet floor.

Main drawback: the $10 oversized handling fee is a large share of the price when you buy just one.

Pick #2: Polypropylene Storage Drawer, the closet workhorse

At W13.4 x D17.5 inches this is the unit most of those Japanese closet photos are built from, and it is the strongest of the three: about 11 lbs per drawer and a stack of up to nine in the Small height. Three heights let you match the drawer to what is above it, and the Medium at $24.90 is the one to default to for folded clothes.

Best for: T-shirts, underwear, socks, and sleepwear on the floor of a closet, under hanging clothes.

Avoid if: your closet is more than about 40 inches wide and you want a single run across it. Three columns of these leave two seams; one wide drawer does not.

Main drawback: you cannot buy one. Multiples of two, plus $15 per piece in handling, means the real cost of trying this size is about $80.

Pick #3: Polypropylene Storage Wide Drawer, for one clean run

Same 17.5 inch depth, 21.7 inches wide, with an inside width of 19.3 inches on the Small and Medium. Two of these cover a closet the width of three narrow columns with one fewer seam, and the extra inside width is what makes divider bins work: folded shirts stand on edge in rows instead of stacking into a pile you have to dig through.

Best for: a wide closet floor, the space under a bed frame, or a shelf where you want the fewest units possible.

Avoid if: you are storing anything heavy, or you want a tall column. This is the weakest and lowest-stacking of the three.

Main drawback: about 6.6 lbs per drawer, roughly 40 percent less than the narrower drawer, and MUJI does not publish a load figure for it on casters.

The deep drawer in the photos, and why you cannot order it

If you have been trying to copy a Japanese closet exactly, the unit you are looking at is probably the Polypropylene Storage Clothing Drawer at W15.7 x D25.6 inches. A traditional oshiire is deep enough to swallow a folded futon, which is the shape this case was drawn around. It is also the strongest MUJI drawer at about 15.4 lbs per drawer.

All three heights of it, at $24.90, $29.90, and $34.90, were sold out on muji.us on September 7, 2026. Stock changes, so it is worth rechecking. It is also the size to measure hardest for: a US reach-in closet is often about 24 inches deep, so a 25.6 inch drawer may not clear the door, while the 17.5 inch storage drawer leaves room in front of it.

Measure before you order

These drawers are cheap individually and expensive to get wrong, because you buy them two at a time with a per-piece surcharge and cannot return them easily once they are stacked full. Three numbers decide the order.

• Depth: 17.5 inches for both storage drawers. Measure from the back wall to the inside face of the closed closet door, not to the door frame.
• Height under the hanging clothes: take the length of your longest hanging garment, then choose the drawer height that clears it. This is why MUJI sells the same footprint at 7.1, 9.4, and 11.8 inches.
• Width, divided into columns: 13.4 inches per narrow column or 21.7 per wide one. Leave a finger's width between columns so the drawers do not scrape when you pull them.

Casters, at $4.90 for four, are worth adding if the drawers live at the back of a closet, since a loaded column is easier to roll out than to drag. Just remember that fitting them lowers the rated load per drawer.

What actually fits in a shallow case

The shallow heights hold one layer. That is the point of them: nothing hides underneath anything else, so you can see the whole drawer without moving its contents. Pens, cables, medicine, makeup, and paper all work; folded clothes do not, because a single T-shirt eats most of the height.

The deeper heights invert that. They hold much more, and they need dividers or bins if you do not want to dig, which is why so many of these setups have a second layer of containers inside the drawer.

Beyond the closet

Nothing about these units is closet-specific. The same drawers turn up beside washing machines, under bathroom sinks, in pantries, and under desks, because the shape is a plain rectangular box that stacks. In a rental, that portability is the argument for them over built-ins: they come apart into single drawers and go with you.

For a closet layout that these fit into, see our small-bedroom closet guide, and for the order in which to work through a small home, the professional organizer workflow.

Frequently asked questions

Ready to buy?

Prices below are the muji.us listings checked on September 7, 2026. The buttons go to Amazon, where third-party sellers import the same drawers at their own prices, so compare both before ordering.