10 Practical Household Items You Can 3D Print

3D printing has a reputation problem. Too often, it's associated with novelty trinkets and dusty decorative prints that end up in a drawer. But the real magic happens when you print something genuinely useful—something you reach for every day.

Here are ten practical household items that earn their keep.

1. Cable Organizers

Every desk has that one cable that refuses to stay put. The moment you unplug your laptop charger, it slides off the desk and disappears behind your furniture.

A simple 3D printed cable clip solves this for good. These clips attach to the edge of your desk and hold cables in place when not in use. You can print them in matching colors, size them for specific cable diameters, and position them exactly where you need them.

Why it works: Unlike generic cable management products, you can customize the clip size to fit your exact cables—from skinny USB-C to chunky power cords.

2. Drawer Dividers

The junk drawer. Every home has one. Batteries rolling around with rubber bands, pens, and mystery keys.

Custom drawer dividers transform chaos into order. Measure your drawer, print dividers that fit perfectly, and suddenly everything has a home. The key is customization—store-bought dividers never quite fit right because drawers come in endless sizes.

Pro tip: Print them in a grid pattern rather than solid walls. Uses less material, prints faster, and looks better.

3. Replacement Knobs and Handles

Here's where 3D printing really shines: fixing things that manufacturers no longer support. That broken drawer pull on your dresser? The snapped-off knob on your appliance? These are perfect candidates for printing.

Replacement parts often cost more to ship than they're worth—if you can even find them. A 3D printed replacement costs pennies in material and can be printed overnight.

Material choice: For knobs and handles that see daily use, PETG holds up better than PLA over time.

4. Wall-Mounted Hooks and Holders

Generic hooks from the hardware store work, but they're never quite right. Too big, too small, wrong shape for what you're hanging.

3D printing lets you create hooks designed for specific items. A hook shaped to hold your exact headphones. A holder that cradles your specific remote control. A mount that fits your particular brand of broom handle.

Design tip: Add mounting holes for screws rather than relying on adhesive. Printed hooks can hold surprising weight when properly secured.

5. Toothpaste Tube Squeezers

Simple, satisfying, and endlessly useful. A ratchet-style toothpaste squeezer ensures you get every last bit from the tube. Roll it up from the bottom, click by click, and watch the waste disappear.

This is the kind of print that pays for itself. Over a year, you'll recover weeks worth of toothpaste that would have ended up in the trash.

Why print instead of buy: Commercial squeezers are often flimsy plastic that breaks. A well-designed printed version lasts years.

6. Battery Organizers

Loose batteries in a drawer are annoying and potentially dangerous. When they touch, they can short-circuit. And you never know what's charged versus dead.

A printed battery organizer keeps everything sorted by size and status. Some designs include separate sections for fresh and used batteries, so you never waste time testing.

Recommended design: Look for dispensers that work like a FIFO queue—you load from the top and pull from the bottom, automatically rotating your stock.

7. Plant Pot Drainage Trays

Every plant pot needs a tray underneath. But matching trays are expensive, and generic ones rarely fit properly.

Print trays sized exactly to your pots. Add feet to raise them slightly for airflow. Design drainage channels that direct water away from furniture. This is practical customization at its finest.

Material note: PETG handles moisture better than PLA for long-term use near plants.

8. Door Stops

A wedge-shaped doorstop seems trivial, but a well-designed one is surprisingly useful. Print them with textured bottoms that grip floors better than smooth rubber. Add a handle or lip so you can kick them into position without bending down.

The beauty is in the details. A printed doorstop can include features no commercial version offers—because those features aren't worth injection-molding for mass production.

9. Shelf Brackets and Supports

Furniture repairs are one of 3D printing's killer applications. Those plastic shelf supports that came with your bookcase? They crack with age. The clips inside your refrigerator? They get brittle and snap.

Rather than replacing entire pieces of furniture, print the small parts that failed. Measure the original, model a replacement, and print it in a material that'll last longer than the original.

Success story: A common fix is IKEA furniture shelf pins. They're cheap to buy but expensive to ship. A few minutes of printing solves the problem permanently.

10. Kitchen Bag Clips

Magnetic bag clips that stick to your fridge are genuinely useful. Keep chips fresh, seal coffee bags, close pasta packages. Having them stuck to the fridge means you always know where they are.

Print a set of different sizes for different bags. Add strong magnets during the print or design pockets to insert them afterward.

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The Common Thread: Customization

Notice what these items share? They're all things where off-the-shelf solutions are just okay. The magic of 3D printing isn't creating something impossible—it's creating something perfectly suited to your specific situation.

A cable clip sized for your exact charger. Drawer dividers that fit your actual drawers. A hook designed for your particular headphones.

This is why 3D printing has staying power as a practical tool, not just a hobby.

Getting These Printed

Don't have a 3D printer? That's where we come in. At Mandarin3D, we print functional household items all the time. Our BambuLab printers deliver consistent quality in both PLA and PETG, perfect for practical prints that need to work reliably.

If you have a specific item in mind—a replacement part, a custom organizer, a solution to that one annoying problem in your house—upload your design or reach out to discuss your project. We're happy to help figure out the right material and approach.

Sometimes the most satisfying prints aren't the impressive ones. They're the simple ones you use every single day.