MUJI Polypropylene Storage Drawers: How to Pick the Right Size

You have probably seen MUJI's translucent polypropylene drawers in photos of tidy Japanese closets. They stack, they come apart into single drawers, and they come in a handful of footprints that were designed around Japanese closet depths. The catch for a US buyer is that MUJI USA sells them under different names, and the right footprint depends on how deep your closet or shelf is.

This guide uses the measurements, load limits, stacking limits, prices, and fees published on muji.us, checked on October 21, 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 is the shallowest closet drawer 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 the least weight.
• A deeper closet: the Closet Drawer at W17.5 x D21.6 inches, or the Clothing Drawer at W15.7 x D25.6 inches, the deep one in the oshiire photo below. Both hold about 15.4 lbs per drawer.
• Budget the surcharge: the closet-floor drawers carry a $15 oversized handling fee per piece, must be bought two at a time, and are final sale.

Is polypropylene the right MUJI line?

Polypropylene drawers are MUJI's closet line: rigid, translucent, and built to stack on a floor. muji.us also sells three other storage lines that share some of the same sizes, and one of them may suit the job better before you commit to a stack of drawers.

Soft polyethylene is the line for damp rooms and small hands. MUJI describes the case as cold- and water-resistant, it wipes clean, and the full-size Soft Polyethylene Case Large ($11.90) is rated for about 30.9 lbs. MUJI also says it is not suitable for food storage and lists a stack of only two at that height.

Rattan is the line you leave on show. The Rattan Rectangular Storage baskets share a 14.2 x 10.2 inch footprint across four heights, but each is handwoven, so MUJI warns that height and size vary slightly. On October 21 the Medium and Large were sold out.

The SUS Shelving Unit is the frame rather than a container. The Light Gray Wide Medium ($300) is W33.9 x D16.1 x H47.2 inches, with about 31.5 inches of inside width and shelves rated for about 66 lbs each. If the drawers are going on one, read the shelf note under "Measure before you order" first.

The five 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, and the 55 by 44.5 cm wide case becomes the Storage Wide Drawer. The deep 40 by 65 cm clothing case becomes the Storage Clothing Drawer. muji.us also sells a 44 by 55 cm Storage Closet Drawer, which sits between the two depths.

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 at $29.90, so you can buy one, see whether the depth suits you, and add more later. On October 21 the white gray version was in stock and the clear one was sold out. 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 closet floor built for 17.5 inch drawers.

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 shallowest of the closet-floor drawers, which leaves the most room in front of it, and it stacks the highest: up to nine in the Small height. Each drawer is rated for about 11 lbs. Three heights let you match the drawer to what hangs 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, and it is final sale.

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

Same 17.5 inch depth, 21.7 inches wide, with an inside width of about 19 inches. 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 closet-floor drawers.

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.

Deeper closets: the Closet Drawer and the Clothing Drawer

If you have been trying to copy a deep Japanese closet like the oshiire below, 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 was sold out on muji.us in September, and all three heights, at $24.90, $29.90, and $34.90, were back in stock on October 21, 2026.

The Polypropylene Storage Closet Drawer sits between the two depths at W17.5 x D21.6 inches, at the same three heights and prices. Both are rated for about 15.4 lbs per drawer, the most of any family, and both drop to about 7.7 lbs on casters. These are the sizes to measure hardest for: a 25.6 inch drawer needs a closet at least that deep from the back wall to the closed door, and the 21.6 inch one needs about 4 inches more than the storage drawers.

Measure before you order

These drawers are cheap individually and expensive to get wrong: most are sold two at a time with a per-piece surcharge, and muji.us lists them as final sale, with no refunds or exchanges. Three numbers decide the order.

• Depth: 17.5, 21.6, or 25.6 inches, depending on the family. 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 each footprint at 7.1, 9.4, and 11.8 inches. Casters add about 1.6 inches.
• Width, divided into columns: 13.4 inches per narrow column, 17.5 per closet column, 15.7 per clothing column, or 21.7 per wide one. Leave a finger's width between columns so the drawers do not scrape when you pull them.
• On a MUJI SUS shelf: the unit is 16.1 inches deep, so the 14.6 inch deep Polypropylene Case fits on a shelf and the 17.5 inch storage drawers stick out past the front. Three Cases, about 30.6 inches together, fit across the 31.5 inch inside width of a wide unit; two, about 20.4 inches, leave almost no clearance on a regular unit's 20.5 inches.

Casters, at $4.90 for four in the Caster for Polypropylene Storage set, 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. In the Japanese photos in this guide they also sit on shelves and beside a washing machine, 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. Where things get wet, a soft polyethylene case is the easier line to wipe down.

For a closet layout that these fit into, see our small-bedroom closet guide.

Frequently asked questions

Ready to buy?

Prices below are the muji.us listings checked on October 21, 2026, before the oversized handling fee. The link on each card, like the buttons in the picks above, goes to the muji.us listing.