This Storage Solution Finally Solved My Bathroom’s “Chaos Corner”

Living in a single-closet apartment, I’ve had to get creative with storage solutions. For instance, I have an extra garment rack in my bedroom and a small island with supplemental cabinet space in my kitchen. But there’s still one area that’s been a major clutter problem: my bathroom and its little corner of chaos. 

Here, I carefully stack the random items that need to live somewhere out of sight, including extra cat litter, cat food, toilet paper, and bulkier bath and cleaning products. Not only does it bum me out every time I see it, but the small mountain of unsightly essentials also seems to grow with time. I knew I had to do something to contain it, but wouldn’t that mean somehow conjuring storage out of thin air? Enter: this rolling storage cart from Yamazaki Home. 

Picture a sleek, squat bookcase on wheels perfectly designed to tuck away your odds and ends, and then spin around so it nearly blends into the wall. This rolling cart  is 27 inches tall with two shelves staggered to accommodate items of different heights, but only 5 inches deep, so it takes up hardly any floor space. 

Apartment Therapy has touted this product as a small-space miracle worker before, and AT editors are such fans of Yamazaki Home’s quality that we’ve tried and loved several other items from the Japan-based organizing brand from the magnetic kitchen organizer to the rolling bathroom organizer.

When the rolling storage cart was delivered to my apartment, it arrived perfectly intact in a slim cardboard box. The rectangular structure and its shelves were already assembled, so all I had to do was attach the wheels to the bottom and the handle to one side (which you can use to pull the cart around, as well as hang a little hand towel), which took all of five minutes. 

I rolled it into my bathroom where, thankfully, it fit just below my towel bar (I hadn’t measured before ordering — more chaos!) and snugged up beautifully right against the wall. I took one last look at my sad pile of mismatched cat litter and OxiClean before loading the items into the cart, and to my satisfaction, everything fit, with even a bit of room to spare. 

Then I simply turned the narrow cart around so that the shelves faced the wall, and the clean white exterior nearly blended in with my white tiled bathroom wall. I styled the wooden piece on top of the cart with a candle and some matches, along with a petite flower vase, which is extra nice because my pedestal sink has just enough counter space for my hand soap and electric toothbrush. 

When I first decided that the Yamazaki Home Rolling Storage Cart was exactly what I needed, I almost chose the vibrant yellow pear cart, which is actually in collaboration with Apartment Therapy, because I love weaving in moments of dopamine decor throughout my space, but in the end I opted for a white that would match my bathroom. I appreciate that this simple-yet-ingenous cart is not a statement piece at all, and yet it has transformed my entire bathroom with its subtlety and secret storage powers. 

Buy: Yamazaki Home Rolling Storage Cart, $165