What's better than 3D printing your own stuff? 3D printing something useful in your daily life. Sure, having little knick-knacks around your home can be fun, but when you can use them to make your life a little easier, that's just icing on the cake.

You may not have considered using a 3D printer to make your PC maintenance easier, but there are some interesting and fun ways to put your resin to good use and keep your PC ticking over nicely at the same time. So, here are some ways you can 3D print yourself into a better time with your PC.

4 3D print some cable combs

Keep the spaghetti at bay

Do you use cable combs in your PC? If you've never heard of them, rest assured, they're not there to comb the knots out of your cables. Instead, they're there to ensure that you don't get them all tangled up in the first place.

They work by providing little "lanes" through which you can put your wires to keep them neat and tidy. Not only does it keep the cables from wrapping around one another, but given how combs keep the wires in a linear order, they also look very pleasing. Because cable combs are really simple in design, you can 3D print one with ease and save yourself some cash. You could even get several printed out at once and get your wire hydra all tidied up after years of its terrible reign.

If you want to make one for yourself, you'll need to consider how big your wires are and find something that fits them. However, as an example of what you're looking for, this cable comb on Cults3D is a good standard.

3 Make a screw tray and stop losing your screws

They practically have a life of their own

I don't know aout you, but when I take my PC apart, it becomes a huge herding mission for the screws. Sometimes they'll bounce off the table and fly off into obscurity, sometimes they roll around, and sometimes they just...vanish.

If you're like me and you struggle to keep all the screws together in an orderly manner, then I urge you to try a screw tray. There are plenty out there that you can 3D print, and they're very easy to make to boot. Once you've made one, you can put the screws in the little containers as you disassemble your PC so they stay put. Just don't accidentally knock the tray off a table; that's a classic blunder I always make. This one on Printables is especially nice and simple.

2 Print out your own thermal paste spatula

Put the spare piece of cardboard away

I don't think I've ever used a proper thermal paste spatula. I'm 100% sure that I've bought thermal paste, and that the paste came with a spatula, but when it comes to actually replacing the paste, the spatula has long since vanished. The worst part is, while the ever-handy spatula seems to always go missing, I always manage to find the old credit card I have lying around, so I use that instead.

Regardless of how many spatulas vanish, you don't have to buy a new one. You can just 3D print your own when you need one, and if it goes missing, you can just make another. Finally, I can give my old credit card the warrior's burial it deserves. There's one on Printables, but I'm sure there are plenty more, and you could even design your own.

1 Make your own USB cleaner and scrape out the fluff

I dread to think what mine look like on the inside

So here's a cool little invention I found while doing research for this article. Turns out, people have been working on little USB cleaners that you can 3D print. On paper, it's a very simple design; it's just a hook that goes on a handle, angled in a way that lets you dig into your PC's (or phone's, for that matter) USB ports and scrape out all of the dust and grime that has accumulated within there.

However, like the project shown above, you can get some really creative ideas for scrapers. The example I'm showing here contains a handle, a cap, and a hook you can swap out at any time. It's like a professional product, except you don't have to buy it, and you can just print another if it breaks. Then, once you've made it, you can brave the horrors of whatever's accumulated within the deep, dark recesses of your USB ports and uncover just how much hair one port can contain.

3D printing can help bring order to your PC maintenance

If you've got some resin sitting around and an itch to print something, why not make something that helps you keep your PC ticking over? There are plenty of options to choose from, so select the ones that best suit your needs and get started.