Photo: Michael Hession

Our Favorite Things From Muji

Published July 1, 2019

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If you could see into my house, you’d find a ton of things from Muji, Japan’s answer to IKEA. I contributed some of my favorite picks to this list of Muji items you should get, most of which are available for less than $10. We promise this is not an ad, we’re just big fans here at Wirecutter. Here are two more of my absolute favorite things from Muji:

The Silicone Jam Spoon is probably the most used tool in my kitchen. It’s basically a clean extension of my index finger for scraping out the last bits of sauce from any container. Its material is the perfect softness, and its skinny, shallow spoon head and long neck let it fit in any jar, unlike my favorite full-size silicone GIR spatula. I don’t know how I lived without it.

The other thing, which I keep gifting to people, is the PP Dust Bin Square with Bag Stopper. I use it for countertop trash or compost. I love having a small container for food scraps that can sit on the counter when I’m making food and can then tuck under the sink when not in use—that way, I don’t have to keep walking to the trash can to scrape carrot peels into the bin. You can use compostable vegetable bags from Trader Joe’s or 3-gallon compost bags for food scraps, or you can just use vegetable bags for trash if you don’t compost. The genius is in the inner metal collar that you wrap the mouth of the bag around so the bag tucks neatly inside the trash can. So tidy!

And speaking of seeing into people’s houses, last week we broke a story about Nest cameras allowing the previous owner of a factory-reset, used indoor camera to see images from inside the home of the new owner. We’re happy to report that Google has since rolled out a change to stop that from happening.

The company’s statement: “We were recently made aware of an issue affecting some Nest cameras connected to third-party partner services via Works with Nest. We’ve since rolled out a fix for this issue that will update automatically, so if you own a Nest camera, there’s no need to take any action.” We’re glad this particular problem has been solved, but it’s a good reminder to be careful with used tech gear, whether you’re buying or selling it.