Maybe I am making wrong assumptions, but I bet everyone who owns a desktop 3D printer knows what a cluttered desk looks like. Your previously tidy desk was taken over by random stuff, it seems. Space Invaders, that ‘s what I call these things that took their place somewhere on my desk.
3D printers are useful, no doubt. But when you are using one, you often have tools lying around to tweak and fine-tune your personal minifactory. We all know it takes a lot of discipline to always keep your work surface nice and tidy. And then there is all that other stuff only because of that one machine. There are bits and pieces of filament that did not come out right or just were support structures for your prints. Maybe a spare SD card for transferring your prints should be somewhere but went missing. The technology that is supposed to make your life so much better is making a mess on your desk.
But your 3D printer also is a good companion if you plan on changing a piled up desk into an organized open space. Many fellow 3D printer owners seem to have a similar problem. How else can you explain the abundance of items on Thingiverse and Shapeways designed to keep the stuff neatly organized that would otherwise be covering your desk? We picked a few items you can order online or print yourself for one purpose: Organizing your desktop.
3D printed accessories for organizing your desktop
The usual suspects on just any desk are pens. So let’s start with that. The Pi pen holder
But not every desk needs geekiness. Rich in detail is this modular desk organizer design that turns the edge of your table into the horizon of a beautiful city. The containers are shaped like church and steeple, a little castle or regular houses. They offer possibilities to store items of different and just look amazing.
If small objects are not that much of a problem as letters, notes and some business cards spreading on your desk, the Green Mountain Organizer might be the ideal thing to get all these slips of paper into order. Its simplistic design is an understatement if you consider how many things it can hold for you.
Untangling cables
In printer caves, or less stereotypical, technologically advanced homes, most of the things are plugged in somewhere and connected with each other. Data needs to be transferred, and power must be supplied. As long as we are not able to transfer power over the air, there will be cables. And cables mean cable tangle.
How to get your cable management done depends. If you can just hide everything away under the desk, that’s fine. Getting your chords in orderly lines is easier with this mountable cable clip I wish every hardware store had. Cable ducts are not half as good as this simple plastic thing that can even present all the connectors at your desk in one place.
For storing cables, there is this nifty cable holder called Wave. If that is too fancy for a simple cable rollup, try zip ties. You can also print them if you feel like experimenting.
Tucking away batteries and storage devices
When they do not need to be charged and are not yet in use again, batteries tend to do one thing: Just roll around on my desk. This useful storage container holds up to 18 batteries (sizes AAA and AA) in a simple tower construction that lets you easily take them from its bottom as needed.
The last item we have today is an organizer for USB sticks, SD cards and the smaller microSD cards that get lost so easily. It is not the most beautiful thing, but sure enough an easy task for your 3d printer. You just put your memory cards and sticks in and have them all in order and in one place. What more could you want?
License: The text of "Tidy Up Your Desk Using 3D Printed Accessories" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.