When my mom came to visit me from Tokyo in August, she brought the summer 2009 edition of a wonderful furniture catalog called Iimono Hakken Jutsu, which roughly translates as The magic of discovering great things. The cover promises 3-day delivery and 24-hours of easy living. From cheap fake bricks to decorate a bland white wall to shoes for pregnant moms, the catalog really does seem to solve every household dilemma in a SkyMall-meets-IKEA-meets-Japanese research lab type of way. Although I live in the US and will probably never own any of these things, I thought I'd show you some of my faves — in particular, the ones that are made to save space. Most Japanese, especially in the cities, live in smaller spaces, which explains why things like refrigerators and vacuum cleaners are on average much tinier there than here. Here are some practical, innovative solutions offered in the Iimono catalog.
This bulky ironing board alternative consists of a small rectangular bag made just big enough to fit a standard-sized iron; take out the iron, unfold the bag, and you have a portable ironing board surface that can be laid on top of any flat surface. For less than $15.
This revolving bookshelf only takes up 45 square cm of floor space but fits up to 250 comic books or 150 VHS tapes. Amazing right? It comes in five different colors and two height options — 120.5 cm or 166.5 cm — depending on how many books you have or how low your ceiling are. Each costs less than $100.
Many Japanese sleep in the same room that they eat and lounge in — instead of owning beds, they have mattresses (called futons, though not the same as the bulky mess you get in America) and blankets that are hidden in a closet during the day and pulled out at bedtime. But even folded up mattresses can take up a lot of closet space that could and should be used for other things. Using these blanket cases reduces the amount of storage space consumed to 1/3.
And finally, the portable toilet. This is actually supposed to be for emergency use only, but I love that it folds up into a briefcase (see bottom left illo). It costs about $64. Also, it's called the Rescue Toilet.
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That ironing-board-bag thing actually looks pretty practical, as I don't need a full-size ironing board, myself. The rest of it looks kind of murphy-bed-ish.
The briefcase toilet is awesome. Great for the commute!
I love the earthquake illustration. Looks like godzilla should be coming down the street after them...
Sweet sassy molassy!
I need that bookcase. No, seriously, not in a 'oh, that'd make my life easier wouldn't it be neat' way... but as in:
1) Just moved to a new place.
2) Walls are old plaster so I don't trust putting up shelves.
3) I have around 300 video games, most of them in CD and DVD cases.
And that sucker is PERFECT.
I don't have the woodworking skills to pull that off, so I'm sad.
On the cover... is that a cell phone for your dog?
If your ceilings are lower than 166.5 cm, you must be living in a munchkin house. That's under 5 feet 6 inches.
Clearly it's a dog for your cell phone.
They sell something like that in the US, I had a couple for my CDs, though not as tall as that (mine were about 6' tall). If I recall they were about $200 each.
Bah, it's nothing on the UK's much-missed Innovations catalogue: http://www.bbc.co.uk/collective/gallery/index.shtml?collection=innovations&image=5
I have to know what the little camping girl is saying about her need for a portable toilet.
There are western equivalents of those available. I was able to find these pretty quick, more searching might find closer matches:
It's not a bag, but there are lots of foldable ironing boards. The "folds in to a bag to store the iron" idea is brilliant though.
A similar CD cabinet
Those vacuum storage bags have been hawked on latenite TV for a while.
Ta-da! Toilet in a briefcase.
...and, of course, the bookshelves are packed with manga! Way to go, kid!
We here in the States could learn a lot about living smaller. Alas...
The pictures of futon-box are kind of contradicting the purpose. You sleep on the floor and at daytime storage your mattresses under your bed?
Look into spinner racks, like they use in libraries?
http://www.demco.com/goto?BLK401&C5AZZZZ&si=50942504161619256471
and it's a very small dog for your cell phone. there's a yap for that.
http://www.ergoindemand.com/cd-storage-dvd-storage.htm
Has very similar DVD racks, but you can almost certainly find them cheaper at a local furniture store.
How about the roll out bookshelves in a set of three for $200? Why haven't they brought these beautiful things to our shores? http://www.nissen.co.jp/sho_item/regular/sho_images/7510_26101b.jpg
wsst - thanks for that - I sense a fairly easy (modify existing shelves and add a front/top) DIY project on the way :)
The futon-shrinking thing looks like a Spacebag I own - it's a gigantic spacebag (holds a comforter and a couple pillows and some sheets) attached to a small linen-looking suitcase. Once you finish vacuuming it, it'll fit inside the tiny suitcase. Got it at Burlington Coat Factory for $10 or so, and depending on your space needs it works great.
is that an earthquake icon? i though it was saying "world ending? don't forget your portable toilet!"
You've obviously never been to the Lollipop Guild.
DO WANT ironing board bag. That thing looks super useful!
The full page for wsst's shelves is
http://www.nissen.co.jp/sho_item/regular/7516/7516_26101.asp?book=7536&cat=keysch&bu=5725&thum=keysch
It comes complete with a multi-image zoomable java widget.
Haha, that toilet looks TINY! Must be ment for kids. Only prolbem is where's the toilet paper???
I'm with Blaine, I need that bookcase! (I was sold when they said "comic books".)
The ironing board bag? Towels make perfect ironing boards.
Those blanket cases are sold here in the States, one of those "As Seen on TV" gadgets. They're the with a one-way valve so you can squeeze the excess air out. Personally, it seems like kind of a hassle for daily use -- the U.S. version is marketed more as storage.
Also, DO WANT the ironing board/bag!
Having experienced three of three situations illustrated in the ad, I *need* the RescueToilet.
The revolving bookcase would be easy to build. The HARDEST part would be finding a "lazy susan" turntable mount that couls handle the weight of all the books.
Make the bottom stand a little bigger so that the corners of the rotating shelves doesn't extend past the edge of the stand, and this could be stuck in a corner of a room, out of the way, yet all the contents are easily accessed.
Everything else is just simple, basic woodworking. A thick dowel running up the center to the top piece to stabilize the rotating shelves. A Teflon pad in a socket in the top and a Teflon pad on the end of the dowel keeps things turning smoothly.
@chris tucker: lazy susans capable of holding that much weight can be found in entertainment cabinets from the big-old-CRT days. often free on craigslist! (you may have to offer to take the rest of the particleboard monstrosity to the dump, though)
i prefer the roll-out "stacks"-style shelves, personally. just make sure the shelves you hack have enough strength laterally to be pushed/pulled repeatedly. a lot of flat-pack-type fasteners will loosen considerably if you move the unit around much.
Generally, in Japan you carry around your own supply since there normally isn't any available in public restrooms, anyway.
...As pointed out by the Japanese wife of a good friend of mine, one of the reasons the Japanese have become so efficient at coming up with space-saving gadgets is that they live on a rather overpopulated island with limited space and resources. So it makes sense to keep things as small as possible while improving their durability, performance and efficiency at the same time.
”ママ！ トイレ いきたい！”
"Mama! Toire ikitai!"
"Mom! (I) want to go to the toilet!"
Not surprising, really.
@chris tucker, @maxoid: a 12" 1000 lb rated lazy susan is about $10 at your local hardware store.
Two great suggestions from maxoid and jco about the needed "lazy susan" turntable.
Seems like the hardest part of the woodworking/carpentry would be routing the slots for the shelves and sides. And with the right blade in a table saw, it's really not that hard.
If you could do without the decorative cutouts on the sides, this would be a half a weekend day project from start to finish, including travelling to get the lumber and bringing it back.
The briefcase toilet looks intriguing, but I've always been partial to the Shit Box myself: http://www.thebrowncorporation.com/
The vacuum storage bags,Space-bag which you call is not for dayly use at all,of course
.The purpose is to storage the things you do not normally use, like in summer we don't need the big duvets or closes for winter which would take most of the space in a storage place.
The book shelve is less than 100$. Is that expensive?? Its much more cheaper than every links you showed.
http://www.nissen.co.jp/sho_item/regular/7510/7510_80727.asp?book=7510&cat=cate017&bu=5329&thum=cate017_007_000_000-02
Is not the cell phone, but for grooming with no sound.
She is saying "Mama, I want to go the toilet"
@ ChesterKatz
> The briefcase toilet looks intriguing, but I've always been partial to the Shit Box myself: http://www.thebrowncorporation.com/
i just had to click your link because the company name was so... inviting... :)
their branding is very cute, however, it disturbed me to see the kid's version of their product came in two colours, pink or blue. i may just order one to puke into:
http://www.thebrowncorporation.com/products/little-jacks-box
I REAAAAAALLLLY need the iron bag. Really. I live in NY, and this should be mine.
Lisa, thank you for keeping the metric system. It was fun to understand for once how tall the objects in the pictures are! I'd hope that Boing Boing would too that more, in general.
None the less, now that I'm on the other end of the table, I feel obliged to remind that a number of the readers probably have problems with SI.
THANK you for the Shit Box link! I laughed so hard I nearly woke up my son who I finally got to sleep! I needed that.
NOW, someone PLEASE tell me about that dog on the cell phone! Is it to translate doggie speak? Really a phone for your dog (and WHY?)...
Shouldn't that toilet girl be in a sailor suit?
I'd totally get those magic blanket containers. Must be the same technology the TARDIS uses.
Lisa, thank you for keeping the metric system. It was fun to understand for once how tall the objects in the pictures are! I'd hope that Boing Boing would too that more, in general.
I couldn't disagree more as I'm an American and have to pull up the metric to standard calculator every time I need to understand a size or measurement.
What percentage of the world's countries are NOT using metric?
thats a huge swiveling porn shelf. that dude has a ton of porn.