They were one of my presents for my 40th birthday, from my husband, and if I'm honest, I was a bit nonplussed. Buckets seemed like an odd thing to unwrap on a birthday. He'd also wrapped up some lovely jewellery, tucked inside one of them, which helped. What I didn't expect was that nearly five years on, these would turn out to be some of the most useful things we own.
Why Hachiman's buckets are more than they look
Hachiman is a family-owned Japanese company that's been making these since the early 1990s, and they've picked up Japan's Long Life Design Award along the way. But an award doesn't really explain why they work. The cleverness is that ours sit somewhere between an ordinary bucket and an actual piece of furniture. Nobody's trying to disguise what they are, they're stackable, there's a hole in the handle for a hose, they still look exactly like buckets. They just also happen to hold their own as a stool, a side table, and proper storage, which is a lot to ask of a bucket.
What it's actually like, years in
We have three, in different sizes and colours, a large blue one, a medium pink and purple one, and a smaller black one. All with lids.
The blue one gets the most use by far. It currently holds our extremely extensive collection of cables, which my daughter has tried more than once to organise properly into little bags, and which always descends back into chaos anyway. At least it's all in one place.
the cable graveyard, at least contained
It also works brilliantly as a coffee table and a stool, and since I'm on the shorter side, it's sturdy enough that I use it as a step when I need to reach the high cupboards.
The medium one holds tape, of various kinds.
the medium one, on tape duty
The small black one has become the home for a rotating cast of hair bits and pieces.
the small one, lid on
They've held up well. All three still look good nearly five years in. The one honest niggle is that the lids are ridged, so they do collect crumbs and dust, but it wipes off easily enough and it's never felt like a real complaint.
The one thing worth knowing before buying
They're a genuinely odd gift or purchase to explain to someone before they've lived with one. "I bought you a bucket" undersells it completely, and it took us actually using ours daily, as storage, seating, and a step stool, to understand why people rave about them.
Was it worth it?
I don't know exactly what my husband paid, but a set like ours, one large, one medium, one small, would cost somewhere around £70 to £90 at current UK prices. For three items we reach for most days, used as storage, seating, and occasionally a stepladder substitute, that's an easy yes, even if it took me a little while to come round to it.
It's also a nice reminder that "worth keeping" doesn't always mean something you saved up for or agonised over. Sometimes it's a slightly odd birthday present that turns out to be exactly right.
The next chapter
We haven't worked out where they'll live in the new house yet. But given how many different jobs they do in this one, storage, seating, step stool, cable graveyard, I'm not remotely worried about finding them a home. Something that useful tends to make its own case.
Still worth keeping?
- Durability
- Excellent, no fading or cracking after nearly five years, just crumbs in the lid ridges that wipe off
- Versatility
- Genuinely exceptional, storage, seating, side table, and step stool, all from the same object
- Would we buy them again?
- Yes, though I'd have been more enthusiastic unwrapping them the first time round
- Best for
- Anyone who wants a piece of storage that quietly does several jobs at once, and doesn't mind a slightly unglamorous birthday present
