Tame Your Wires With The 3D Printed Wire Parking Lot

The mess of power and charging wires under and next to my desk is a disgrace. It's probably unsafe, and it's certainly ugly - but the main problem is, it takes me a few minutes to find the right wire each time I try to plug in any one of my many electronic devices. It's simply non-functional - and now, they are so tangled, there is hardly enough slack to even reach the top of my desk! ARGH!

The Idea

I was determined to design a simple multi-wire holder which let me easily keep the end of the wire close at hand, find the right wires fast and to avoid future tangles.

My idea was simple. I just wanted a "parking spot" for the end of each wire - most of which are micro-USB. I also have one iPad wire and one Mac wire. My goal was to create something fairly generic that would work for the ends of most any wire.

I wanted to be able to insert and remove each wire from it's parking spot easily, but have the wire held securely when it is parked.

The Design

My first iteration was simply a tapered hole in a shallow board with an entry slot through which the thin part of the wire could be inserted.

As I tested that design in a small version, I realized I could improve it by adding some separators between multiple spots which helped to make sure the ends of each wire did not touch each other.

The Print

I ended up with a 5-spot parking lot to which I added screw holes to secure this to a nearby side table. The result is incredibly functional and so far is solving my problem! I'm sure I need at least 5 more parking spots already, and I might add a system of labeling each wire too (since some have slightly different power profiles).

I'll definitely be adding this print to my answer to the oft-asked question "What have you printed that is actually useful?".

The Model

You can find this model on my Pinshape page.