The best things in life are priceless, but the most useful things tend to only cost about 100 yen (US$0.90).

Long-time SoraNews24 readers will know that our in-house reporter Go Hatori is a thrifty spender and a frequent purveyor of stores like Daiso and Seriya, stores where you can expect to pay 100 yen (US$0.90) and come home with a new trinket; a gorgeous face mask for example, or a chunky plastic wrist-watch.

▼ Here is Go outside his favorite store, dressed in an outfit comprised solely from their wares.

You may have wondered, then, what happens to all of Go’s little purchases? How useful can anything he buys at the 100 yen store really be?

Quite useful, as it turns out. Come with us, and enter the glorious world of discount purchases that is Go’s apartment!

Wait! What’s that, by the door? Why, it’s Go’s personal hand-sanitizing station. It’s a pump-operated bottle of hand sanitizer stored inside a magnetic umbrella rack. Naturally, both the pump bottle and the umbrella rack were purchased from Daiso.

▼ Handy and hygienic!

We enter Go’s hallway and, like all good guests, remove our shoes. Here we can witness the chaotic glory of Go’s shoe cupboard, festooned as it is with an army of plastic 100-yen boxes. The man just can’t get enough of a good plastic receptacle, and who can blame him? But look closer. Further down, past the lines of colorful containers. There.

▼ A lint roller…?

No, of course not! This convenient little item is a handy way to wrap items together, say for if you’re dropping them off in your apartment building’s recycling area. You can see in the background of the above photograph some cardboard that’s been wrapped together like this, but it’s handy for magazine storage too, or anything else you want to shroud in plastic wrap.

Step into Go’s bathroom and you’ll see a modest amount of products and appliances.

One of his favorite cheap finds is tucked away on the shower-self: a nose-hair cutter. “Just stick it up your nose and twirl it around”, claims its original packaging. Go, who is apparently plagued with rapidly-growing nose hair, finds it invaluable.

And let us not neglect his handy-dandy cotton swab holder, which also cost 100-yen. Just one push, and presto! All the cotton swabs you could ever desire.

“I’ve been using it for two years now,” Go proclaims proudly.

Onwards to the living room. Take a moment to bask in all those luscious plants and artsy shelves. Aaaah.

The thing about bookshelves, as any bookworm will tell you, is that it can be tricky to economize the space. Especially when it comes to Japanese novels, which tend to be much smaller in stature and therefore take up much less room when lined up on a shelf. Never fear, though — Daiso has just the solution.

▼ With these little brackets, you can pack all the books you like into a given shelf!

The living room and kitchen are all part of the same room, so we only need toddle to the side to see where Go prepares his food.

Did you spy our old friend off to the right? Yes, nowhere is safe from the ubiquitous bounty of plastic boxes.

All manner of stackable pots, boxes, and bottles can be found in the kitchen, lining Go’s fridge and cupboards, many of which hail from the humble 100-yen store. Peek down to the bottom shelf of the sink here, and you’ll find even more plastic boxes…as well as another curious item that Go’s gotten lots of mileage out of over the years.

What do you think it is?

…

Okay, okay.

It’s a box that stores replacement drainage nets you put in the plughole of your kitchen sink (since Japanese home kitchens don’t have garbage disposals). Go picked this up at CanDo, another 100-yen store, in 2018 and has been gleefully plucking drainage filters out of it ever since.

▼ What will they think up next?

Another treasure is the Spoon that Makes Curry Taste More Delicious, from Daiso.

It’s made with a deeper curve than a usual spoon so that you can heap plenty of rice, curry, and veggies in for the perfect bite, every single time. Go urges everyone who is able to rush out and buy one, right away.

It’s almost time to bid Go’s abode farewell, but we’d be remiss not to show off the bounty of laundry goods he’s netted for the price of a pair of socks.

The clothes hangers? All from 100-yen stores.

What about this space-saving eight-pin hanger?

▼ 100-yen store.

Or this hanger, specifically designed to help hooded sweatshirts and the like dry faster, by spreading out the surface area?

▼ This also comes from the 100-yen store, yes.

▼ Here’s how to use it, by the way.

Last, but not least, is this specially-shaped hanger that comes with revolving shoulder-supports to ensure your turtleneck sweaters maintain their shape.

▼ It works!

Before we leave, Go would like to share one of his favorite 100-yen purchases: this tiny tripod that you can easily snap onto your iPhone to up your selfie game.

So impressive is this tiny little tripod that Go has purchased well over 20 of them to use both at home and at the office. No wonder he can create such stunning GIFs to illustrate his articles.

▼ The doodle reads “you can even use it like this, or whatever!“

While 100-yen stores frequently sell goods that are actually priced above the baseline, Go can assure you that everything introduced in this article did, in fact, cost 100 yen plus tax. It just goes to show that you don’t need to blow the bank for good quality products — at least, not if you have a Daiso store or the like nearby.

Photos © SoraNews24
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