An inefficient kitchen can really slow you down and become a source of frustration. With a 3D printer, you can overcome many of these frustrations—and you’ll wonder how you ever coped before.
Here are some great kitchen 3D printing projects to get you started.
Dishwasher clean or dirty slider
The simplest ideas are the best
The clean or dirty slider can help demystify the state of the items in your dishwasher. This is a super simple idea: a slider either reads “clean” or “dirty” to let you know before you open the door. Flip it to “clean” whenever you set off a load, then flip it to “dirty” after you’ve emptied it.
There are a variety of different prints and remixes available to suit your preferred method of attachment, from magnets to double-sided tape.
CANfinity pantry storage
Modular shelving for your staples
CANfinity is Gridfinity for your pantry. This system comprises left and right modules plus an adapter to close the system, so your oldest cans are fed in from the top and the oldest always appears at the front. You can print a whole set of these that share side walls, saving on filament.
The system is also available as CANfinity Slim, a system that takes up less room for smaller shelving setups.
Onion & potato dispenser
With a garlic add-on
Onions are a staple in that they make up the basis for so many dishes. They’re one of those vegetables you should always keep in stock, but they can be hard to store properly. With the onion and potato dispenser, you can drop your veggies in from the top and take from the bottom to ensure you’re using the old stuff first.
This works for potatoes and any equivalently-sized round vegetables you might want to store, plus you can print a small garlic tray add-on for the top if you want.
Food container lid holder
No more fishing around for the right lid
Food containers are super useful for storing food yet incredibly frustrating to store. While containers stack fairly neatly, lids do not. They tend to get shoved to the back, fall over, and take up too much room. The answer, then, is to stack them neatly in a vertical orientation.
If you have IKEA 365 food containers, there’s an IKEA-specific lid holder available that can be mounted high out of the way. For everyone else, take a look at the generic lid holder.
Mounted storage for cling wrap and foil
Complete with the container for easy cutting
Storing cling wrap, baking paper, and foil in the drawer can be a nightmare. Every time I reach for one, I end up slicing my hands on the cutter for another. There are so many more useful things I could put in the drawer that take up less room.
That’s why I’m switching to this holder for cling wrap and foil. Unlike other models, the whole container fits into the holder so you don’t lose the ability to cleanly cut whatever it is you’re using. Just make sure it’s large enough for whichever brand and size you usually buy (or scale them up and down in your slicer to suit).
Trash bag dispenser
A garbage model
Rolls of trash bags tend to hang out in drawers, under the sink, or move around the kitchen. If you can never find them when you need them, perhaps it’s time to make a permanent home. A trash bag dispenser might seem like an incredibly boring thing to print, but it’s a small quality of life improvement you’ll come to appreciate.
You can find dispensers for just about every size of bag you might use. Get yourself a customizable model or opt for something brand-specific like a Kirkland (Costco) bag dispenser.
Pot lid holders
I need these in my life
Like food container lids, pot lids can be a real nuisance to store. They either have to go on the pots they belong to, limiting how things are stacked, or they sit next to your pots and take up too much space. A far better idea is to mount them on the sides of cupboards and cupboard doors using a pot lid holder mount.
There are a few interpretations of this idea, with slightly different executions. For example, this lid holder should accommodate slightly thicker pot lids.
Plate stands and cupboard organizers
Stop chipping your plates
Most of us store our plates in a stack, which is an efficient method of storage that comes with some downsides. Storing too much on top of your plates makes it heavy (and dangerous) to retrieve things, and then there’s that sickening crack noise when things slip and fall. A safer solution is to stack your plates vertically using the vertical plate stand.
Alternatively, you can just try to make better use of the system you already have with a shelf organizer that elevates plates, so you can store things beneath them.
- Build Volume
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180x180x180
- Printing Speed
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500mm/s
The Bambu Lab A1 mini 3D printer is ready to go out of the box and can have you printing within 30 minutes. Offering full-auto calibration, this compact 3D printer features a 180mm build volume and is compatible with the AMS Lite for multi-color printing. It also features built-in vibration and flow-rate calibration, which are typically features only found on more premium printers.
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- Build Volume
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256x256x256mm
- Printing Speed
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600mm/s
The Bambu Labs P2S 3D printer is ready to go out of the box and can have you printing within 15 minutes. It features up to 20-color printing with the AMS unit, has an upgraded built-in camera for remote monitoring and time lapses, and has an enclosed body for printing even high-temperature filament.
Looking for more useful prints? Check out these tiny prints that use less than 20g of filament.
