What problem it solves

Most small rooms have a gap that is too narrow for furniture and too wide to ignore: between the desk and the wardrobe, beside the fridge, next to the basin, or between a bed and the wall. The SONGMICS narrow storage tower is built for exactly that space. It is 17.3cm wide, 45.2cm deep and 84cm tall, with four drawers that slide out of the narrow end.

The grey version was £46.99 on Amazon when checked and the white one £48.99, the same price SONGMICS charges on its own UK site, so there is no cheaper place to buy it. That is a lot for a plastic drawer unit. It only makes sense if you have a narrow gap that nothing wider will fit into.

The drawer sizes, and what they mean

SONGMICS gives the internal size of each drawer as 44.5cm deep, 13.5cm wide and 18.5cm tall, roughly 10 litres apiece. Those numbers matter more than the headline capacity, because 13.5cm is narrow.

What fits comfortably:

chargers, cables, power banks and a mouse
pens, notebooks up to A5 and a small stapler
socks, underwear and folded T-shirts stacked lengthways
toiletries, medicines and cleaning sprays standing upright
tins, jars and packets in a kitchen

What does not:

A4 paper, folders or ring binders
most hardback books
anything wider than about 13cm, such as a tablet lying flat

For a desk, that makes it a good home for the small things that otherwise cover the surface, rather than a filing cabinet. If paperwork is the problem, a wider mobile pedestal is the right tool, at the cost of the gap it needs.

Clearance: it opens forwards, not sideways

This is the detail to check before ordering. The drawers pull out of the 17.3cm face, so the unit slots into a gap with its narrow end facing you, and each drawer extends nearly 45cm forwards to open fully. Beside a desk that is fine, because you are already sitting in front of it. Beside a bed it works as a tall bedside unit. Beside a fridge or in a bathroom, make sure there is room to step back.

Because the whole thing runs on four castors, the alternative is to roll it out of the gap, open the drawers, and roll it back. Some owners skip the wheels entirely and stand it directly on the floor, which lowers it slightly and suits a gap it will never leave.

Build and assembly

The tower is polypropylene throughout, in two stacked two-drawer modules that clip together, and it arrives essentially finished. The only assembly is pushing four castors into the base, which owners consistently describe as a couple of minutes without tools.

The plastic is a practical choice rather than a cheap one. It does not mind a damp bathroom, wipes clean, and at 4.6kg it can be lifted out of a gap with one hand. The trade-off is appearance: this is a functional grey or white box, and it looks like one. In a bedroom it makes more sense tucked beside a desk or wardrobe than out in the open.

Owner feedback is strong for a product this simple, with a 4.6-star average from several thousand ratings. The recurring themes are that the drawers are deeper than expected, that it fits gaps beside dishwashers and basins that nothing else would, and that it is sturdier than they expected. The most common complaint is the price itself.

How it compares

The obvious cheaper alternative is an open-shelf slim trolley, the kind with three or four wire or plastic tiers at £15 to £30. There are far more of those to choose from and they cost less, but everything on them is on show and catches dust. The SONGMICS wins on tidiness.

For a desk that needs more storage than a gap can provide, a cube unit like the one in our small bedroom desk setup guide holds far more per pound, but it needs at least 30cm of floor depth and a proper patch of wall.

For the narrow gap itself, there is not much competition. Fabric-drawer towers at a similar width are cheaper but tend to sag, and wooden units this slim are usually either more expensive or wobbly.

SONGMICS narrow storage tower verdict

This is a buy-it-if-you-have-the-gap product. Measure the space, confirm it is at least 18cm wide and 46cm deep with room in front to pull a drawer, and the SONGMICS tower is a tidy, tool-free answer that will hide a surprising amount of desk or bathroom clutter.

If the gap is wider than about 25cm, or the things you need to store are A4-sized, spend the money on a wider unit instead. And if £47 for plastic drawers grates, nothing about the white version changes that: you are paying for a size that almost nothing else comes in.

The verdict

Rating: 4.3/5

The SONGMICS tower is a specialist. If you have a 20cm gap beside a desk, bed or appliance that currently collects dust, it turns that gap into four useful drawers with no tools and no fixing. It is more expensive than it looks, and the narrow drawers limit what goes in, but nothing else this slim is as tidy.

Pros

+ 17.3cm wide, so it fits gaps that no other drawer unit will
+ Four closed drawers of roughly 10 litres each hide clutter rather than displaying it
+ Arrives assembled apart from four clip-in castors
+ Polypropylene shrugs off damp, so it works in a bathroom as well as beside a desk
+ Light enough to pull out for cleaning behind