The 12 Best Things to Buy at Muji

Muji is a masterclass in thoughtful design at reasonable prices. Everything they make solves a specific problem with zero excess. Walking into one of their stores is an exercise in restraint—you'll want everything, but focusing on their standout categories yields the best return on investment.

The polypropylene storage boxes are Muji's most iconic product for good reason. Modular, stackable, and semi-translucent, they bring order to drawers, closets, and shelves without looking clinical. The half-size and quarter-size options fit inside the larger ones like nesting dolls.

Buy the storage boxes second, not first. The polypropylene range is modular against itself, not against your furniture, so measure the drawer or shelf you are filling before you go, depth especially: the standard boxes are deep enough to swallow an IKEA KALLAX cube whole and still stand proud at the front. Take the numbers in on your phone. Nobody will stop you laying boxes out on the shop floor to check.

Their gel ink pens at $1.75 each write more smoothly than pens costing five times as much. The 0.5mm tip in black is the go-to, but the full color range makes them ideal for journaling or note-taking. Buy a dozen and scatter them throughout your apartment.

The cotton canvas sneakers at around $30 are Muji's sleeper hit. Clean white, minimal branding, and comfortable enough for all-day wear. They won't last as long as Common Projects, but at one-tenth the price, you can replace them seasonally without guilt.

Muji's skincare line—particularly the Sensitive Skin toning water and moisturizing milk—offers Japanese formulation quality at drugstore prices. Fragrance-free, minimal ingredients, and effective. The pump bottles last months with daily use.

The aromatic diffuser is compact, quiet, and looks like an actual design object rather than a gadget. Pair it with their essential oil blends—the hinoki cypress is particularly good—for a subtle, natural room scent that beats any candle for consistency.

Their travel-sized containers and pouches solve packing better than anything at a drugstore. The silicone tubes don't leak, the clear cases pass TSA without drama, and the snap-button organization pouches keep cables and chargers separated. Stock up before any trip.

What to skip: most of the clothing. Muji drafts its patterns for Japanese proportions even in European and American stores, so sleeves run short and shoulders sit narrow. Try things on rather than ordering, or size up one and accept the sleeve length. The furniture is competent but priced against Muji's design reputation rather than its materials.

Two maintenance notes nobody mentions. The aroma diffuser scales up quickly in hard water, so run it monthly with a spoonful of citric acid dissolved in water or the mist output halves and the unit starts to buzz. And the gel pens take refills, sold separately for a fraction of the pen price, which makes the sensible purchase two or three bodies and a box of refills rather than a dozen whole pens.

The food aisle is the most underrated part of the shop. The retort curries, particularly the green and the keema, heat in a pan of boiling water in five minutes, cost a couple of dollars each, and keep in a cupboard for a year.