I Finally Found a Small-Space Hamper for My Bathroom, and It Makes My Life So Much Easier

It doesn’t take much for my small bathroom to descend into messy chaos. In full transparency, my habit of tossing towels and dirty clothes on the floor before I hop in the shower doesn’t help matters. I’ll pick the pile up eventually, but there’s usually some lag time.

For exactly that reason, I’ve debated adding a hamper to my bathroom for a while. While said bathroom is crowded enough as it is, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Most hampers on the market are just way too big. At first, I floated the idea of a hanging laundry hamper, but I already have an over-the-door organizer in place and I can’t sacrifice that storage.

The solution eluded me until I laid eyes on a minimalist-looking folding storage bin from Yamazaki, an editor-favorite organizing brand (and you can also find it on Amazon). It can serve a number of purposes in any space thanks to its compact footprint — but in mine, it’s become an amazing catch-all for laundry.

These kinds of foldable hampers are popular in Japan, traditionally used next to tables to hold bags, hats, and accessories. Their main purpose is to keep items up and off the floor, and thanks to their light weight, they can move between rooms easily. In your living room, you can use it as a magazine rack or blanket holder; in your entryway, you can toss your scarfs, umbrellas, or anything else of that nature that you need to grab as you head out the door. It can even become a stylish organizing solution for toys!

Yamazaki’s bin has a durable steel frame that you can collapse when it isn’t in use. The detachable cloth bin hooks onto it via Velcro — and it’s washable, so you can even toss it in with your laundry. Its capacity is 22 pounds and the whole structure measures about 11 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 16 inches tall.

I’m no stranger to Yamazaki’s organizing products, having relied on its towel organizer for months already, so I knew that this storage bin’s quality wouldn’t let me down. There was basically no effort involved in setting it up, aside from unfolding the frame and attaching the bin to it. Not once has it shown any sign of buckling, even when it’s completely stuffed with towels.

And the bin itself can hold a surprising amount, more than I expected due to its slimmer proportions. I’ve been trying to toss only bath towels and washcloths inside of it so that they’re all separated on laundry day. It comes in handy because I’m a fan of fluffy towels, which are better to wash apart from my clothes and bedding because they’re so bulky. I can just pull apart the Velcro and toss this little bag in my larger hamper, so I don’t have to rifle through an enormous pile to pull out all of the towels.

I do occasionally toss some dirty clothes in there before showering though. At one time, I believe I had about two plush bath towels and at least four days’ worth of outfits in there. That’s impressive considering it barely takes up any space on my floor. I would hardly notice it if it wasn’t making such a big difference in decluttering in my bathroom.

There’s a solid chance that when I move into my next apartment, it’ll have an equally small — if not smaller — bathroom, so I don’t see myself ever not making good use out of Yamazaki’s folding storage bin. After all, even if it eventually doesn’t work in the bathroom, I could easily move it into my living room or entryway.

Buy: Yamazaki Tower Folding Storage Bin, $58 (also available at Amazon)