A practical guide to home decor shopping

For this HiStreet blog post, I’m going to introduce you to shops where you can buy waste bins in Causeway Bay… You may be wondering, why blog about bins when there are so many home accessories that are more glamourous to talk about?

Partly, this is for a practical standpoint. Not everyone can fit a 3-seater sofa in their matchbox-sized flat in Hong Kong. But we all need a handy receptacle to keep our trash out of sight.

Most importantly, this post came out of my actual personal experience of seeking for bins for my home, as I needed a waste basket for my desk and a small rubbish bin for my bathroom. It took a lot of legwork to find something so simple, as I had a preconceived specific style and it was important for me to look at the actual product rather than just ordering online.

Home Goods for a Good Home

For the benefit of the Hong Kong public, here is a list of 8 home accessories stores in Causeway Bay, with a focus on their bin selection. This list is sorted by the order of my time of visit within one evening, so you can retrace my steps on foot in the most efficient route if you’d like to explore these stores. Although I already knew about most of these shops before this adventure, HiStreet was useful for me to visualise all the potential shops and narrow down my options while I was on the go.

The bin in the image below was what I had in mind originally: a matte translucent white rectangular bin. Although I didn’t find a bin exactly like this, I did find ones for my bathroom and home office that fit my style. Keep reading to see what I ended up with!

Muji

Since the waste basket I had in mind was simple and clean, the first shop I visited was Muji. Known for their minimal design aesthetics, Muji (which means “no brand”) sells a range of plastic and wooden bins in various sizes, starting at $50 HKD. The store’s largest collection is a set of grey polypropylene bins in 3 sizes: 3L, 11L, and 28L.

Surprisingly, Muji doesn’t have any of their signature white polypropylene material in their bin selection, though you can find organizational drawers and filing boxes made with the smooth white material.

Muji
Address: 3/F-4/F Lee Theatre, 99 Percival Street, Causeway Bay
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun 11:00–22:30

Goods of Desire (G.O.D.)

The local Hong Kong brand G.O.D. embodies their name and motto “live better”, by turning classic Hong Kong motifs into beautiful designs on clothing, accessories, and home goods.

I visited their branch in Causeway Bay and found only higher end rubbish bins in their store. Though the brand is known for their in-house designs that play on quintessential Hong Kong elements, their bin selection is entirely made by other brands and are mostly lidded aluminium bins for kitchen use.

If your kitchen needs a fancy designer bin with non-staining, odour-free features, G.O.D may be the shop to visit.

Goods of Desire
Address: 7 Sharp Street East, Shop A, Causeway Bay
Phone: 2890 5555
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun 11:00–22:00

Japan Home Centre

The home goods chain store is a neater version of common low-cost home goods shops in Hong Kong. The branch I visited is located just 2 doors away from G.O.D. on Sharp Street East, and is on the other end of the pricing and design spectrum compared to its neighbour.

The selection of rubbish bins at Japan Home Centre consists of plastic bins for different home purposes. I chose a simple one to go under my desk that only cost $15 HKD. (Complete details on my purchase at the bottom of this post.)

Japan Home Centre
Address: 5 Sharp Street East, 1/F, Causeway Bay
Phone: 2576 1041
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun 9:00–22:00

Homeless

The name of this lifestyle shop is confusing, as one would not be able to afford the imported brands they sell if one truly were homeless. This branch in Causeway Bay is an upstairs walk-up shop with multiple floors of novelty gifts, home accessories, and furniture.

The bins at Homeless have a more modern, playful aesthetic than ones at other stores, such as the pictured black geometric lidded bin by Umbra for $108.

Homeless
Address: 17–19 Yun Ping Road, 1/F-3/F, Causeway Bay
Phone: 2890 8789
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 11:30–21:30
Sun & Public Holidays 11:30–21:00

Pricerite

Pricerite is the middle ground between low-end and designer stores for home goods. The Causeway Bay shop near Sogo is a mini warehouse in a basement, selling furniture and homewares in a winding maze.

The rubbish bins sold at Pricerite are priced higher than expected, at $63 HKD even for the cheapest, smallest, plastic variety. The bins are mostly lidded with a step-pedal; perhaps their customers would go there to look for kitchen bins rather than bins for their bedrooms.

Pricerite
Address: 1 Yee Wo Street, B/F, Causeway Bay
Phone: 2923 7010
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 11:00–22:00
Sat, Sun & Public Holidays 10:00–22:00

Living Plaza by AEON

Nicknamed by locals the “12 dollar shop”, Living Plaza in the Fashion Walk area is packed high from floor to ceiling with miscellaneous bargain products. It’s a great place to shop when you’re on a budget, but their bins don’t exactly fit my style.

From the loud patterns…

… to less-than-neutral colors… they have them all.

Living Plaza is great for finding items for the home that are cheap and practical, but they may not exhibit a timelessness in their quality and design.

Living Plaza by AEON
Address: LG/F Aeon, 9 Kingston Street, Causeway Bay
Phone: 3769 6188
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun 10:00–23:00

Francfranc

Right across the street from Living Plaza is Francfranc, a Japanese lifestyle store that goes for a “casual stylish” look, according to their mission statement.

It took me a full walk around the 2-level store before I found their bins — they’re hidden behind a pillar and the staircase on the ground floor. Their selection is more appropriate for the bedroom or study, with plastic and wicker finish in simple designs. Their colour selection is limited to black, white, and other neutral earth tones. It’s the perfect colour scheme for me, but the shapes and sizes are less than ideal.

Francfranc
Address: 8 Kingston Street, Shop B, Causeway Bay
Phone: 3583 2528
Opening Hours: Mon-Thu 11:00–22:00
Fri, Sat 11:00–22:30

Ikea

It’s a no-brainer to try out Ikea when I was hunting for the right rubbish bins in my home. The Scandinavian brand is a household name for flat-packed, affordable furniture, and their simple designs should be appropriate for any modern home.

Perhaps Ikea’s design dimensions are for larger European homes, because to my surprise, their waste baskets and bins are all supersized compared to all the other shops I’ve visited. Even the smallest bin has a 10-litre volume; good luck fitting that into a standard Hong Kong apartment!

Ikea
Address:B/F Style House (The Park Lane), 310 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
Phone: 3125 0888
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun & Public Holidays 10:30–22:30

The Final Results

After searching shop by shop for over 2 hours, I came down to this final decision and bought the following:

• For the bathroom — Muji, 3 litre grey bin with lid, $65 HKD
• For my desk area — Japan Home Centre, rounded square black bin, $15 HKD

Online vs. Offline

This shopping experience might sound like a tedious and tiring process, and you may ask, why not just do my search online in the comfort of my own home and have my loot delivered to my door?

I’m personally a visual person and would much rather see and feel the product to make sure it fits the vision I originally have. Though I can get dimensions, colors, and photos to accompany an online product page, it’s still difficult to know exactly what shade of grey I’m getting myself into.

The tradeoff for delivery time and cost is also an issue in this case. As I’m only buying one or two items, it would not be worth it to order the item online and having to pay for shipping. Especially for something like my 15-dollar bin, I may end up shelling out more for delivery than for the item itself, and waiting for days before I can put my purchase to good use.

With the rise of ecommerce platforms in Hong Kong, we at HiStreet know that we’re going against that flow. But we envision our city to always have brick-and-mortar businesses, and we’re here to help customers and shops find each other in this complicated landscape — even if it meant for us to spend hours on the street for you!

About HiStreet Hong Kong

Ever shop along the streets of the dense city, only to realise you can’t find what you need? Here is where the HiStreet mobile app comes in. We manually collect shop information into one handy directory, so you’re never lost.