3 quick 3D prints fixed the little annoyances I’d ignored around my house for years

Published Oct 26, 2026, 3:30 PM EDT Patrick Campanale has been in the tech space for well over a decade, specializing in PC/gaming news and reviews, as well as maker-focused products to build small businesses. With a start in technology back in 2010 surrounding the Palm/webOS ecosystem, Patrick spent his formative years developing mobile applications as well as blogging for various publications, eventually leading to starting his own website in 2014. After running a technology blog for a few years, he stepped out of that role and into the world of high-end custom PC manufacturing and building, with a focus on YouTube video production and overclocking. Then, in 2017, Patrick joined the 9to5Toys team as an editor/writer/reviewer with over 14,000 articles being published during his time there, ranging from deals and roundups to in-depth reviews on the latest technology, video games, 3D printers, and more. In his free time, Patrick loves to create projects from wood using various robots and methods, including leveraging the technologies of CNCs and lasers. If Patrick isn't working on a computer or playing video games, he's likely in his 2-car garage workshop creating something unique. In addition to all this, Patrick is also the media director at his local church where he feels God has called him to serve, and he loves every minute of it. 3D printers are a fantastic tool for making basically anything you could want. This weekend, I wanted to make my house a little less annoying. So, I set out to find three things I could fix that would make my everyday life a little better, and it took me under an hour to complete. It was finally time to get organized around the house From the office to the bedroom, 3D printing makes organization easy I've had 3D printers in the house for years at this point, but I've never really taken full advantage of just how unique a tool they are for organization. Yeah, I've printed some Gridfinity for the office and shop. I've also printed MultiBoard for the office wall. But, I've never actually looked at the little things that can be improved around the house. So, I decided to take a weekend and figure out how I could fix some annoyances that I had around the house, and set my sights on three areas: my laptop bag storage, shoe organization in the closet, and keeping the curtains under control. I have a handful of 3D printers at the house, so I was able to task each one to print these projects simultaneously to save time. In total, it took me under an hour to print everything by the time I made a few tweaks to some of the files. If you have just one printer, expect these three projects to take around three hours to finish. But, even that's not all that bad when you consider all three models combined need under $2 in filament to complete. A backpack hanger that can handle my heavy tech bag Not all hangers are created equal If you ask my wife, my laptop bag is way too heavy. I mean, it has all the essentials in it: my MacBook, my iPad, my MacBook's charger, a whole organizer that has other chargers and cables in it, my Sony a7 III with a lens, a spare lens, extra batteries for the camera, a few portable SSDs in case I need extra storage, some USB-C batteries to charge my iPad or MacBook if I need to, and sometimes even a camera tripod. Listen, it's not too much, okay? However, it definitely isn't light, so a normal 3D printed bag hanger just wouldn't cut it for me. So I set out to find a backpack hanger that would hold up to the weight of my laptop bag, and I found one on MakerWorld. The Tuff Backpack Hanger is supposedly rated for "100kg+" according to the maker. I'm not sure that I believe it'll hold 220 pounds—I'm not even sure my screws would hold that much. But, it's beefy and fit the design spec I was looking for, so I went with it. I actually printed multiple as I have both a briefcase-style laptop bag as well as a more traditional backpack, and I never know which one I'm going to need. Having two mounted to the back of my closet makes it extremely easy for me to keep my bags organized and I'm not worried that it's going to fall off the wall anytime soon. A shoe hanger to help organize the closet Plus, it airs out the shoes Listen, we all have shoes that don't get put away because they just end up stacked on top of each other. Or maybe you're like my wife and have too many shoes to fit on the floor. This hanger is designed to help fix that. It was a simple print that didn't take a whole lot of time to complete on my X2D. It came out flawless and it works just as well. The hanger is designed to hold two shoes or sandals and hang from a closet rod or hook. That's it. It's simple by design, and that's what makes it so good. There's not much more to say about this shoe hanger. It lets me hang shoes in the closet, and they both take up less room that way and also can air out because there's not a bunch of stuff stacked up on top of them. A curtain tie that doesn't have to mount to the wall It's even renter-friendly! I love the curtains my wife has around the house, but sometimes they can get to be a bit cumbersome. Really, they can just get in the way of the window when I don't want them to. That's what curtain ties are for, right? Well, yes, but I also don't want to screw a curtain tie into the wall. We own our home, so it's not a problem to do it, I just don't want yet another hole in the wall when we might change the curtains out and need to move the tie's location. This 3D printed curtain tie was just as easy to print as the shoe and backpack hangers. It prints flat and took under 30 minutes to complete. It actually feels very sturdy for being such a quick print. Something I love about 3D printing is I can make objects in almost any color I could want. For instance, I found a green that was somewhat close to the curtain color so it would blend in while still keeping the curtains under control. I'm very happy with how it came out, and it cost me around $0.25 in filament to do on the high end, which is a fraction of what something like this would cost to buy. 3D printing really does make everyday life easier if you let it I've used my 3D printers for making products for my business or organizational stuff for my workshop for years. I've even made toys or Christmas presents with them. I'm glad that I finally took some time to fix some annoyances around the house with my 3D printers. It took less than two dollars of filament total and the payoff is massive.