My workspace has always been a big mess. Unfortunately, as a tech lady, I need a lot of cables and all of them at once. That means cables often cover my work desk. A few months after getting my first 3D printer, I decided to eliminate this mess. At first, I wanted a universal cable storage box, but things turned out a little bit differently; I made the Rolls-Royce of cable organisers.

I wrote down a list of things I wanted to solve with such a "box" on the right side of my laptop area. At first, it was just a few cables, but the list grew and grew:

• 2 USB-C cables
• Micro USB cable
• Lightning cable
• iPhone charging station
• Apple Watch charging station
• Tissue box (guys, please... :) just for a running nose)
• Stand for a lamp (had to be above the external display)

Suddenly, it had to be an organiser with a solid structure so that it would not deform under a not-quite-light metal table lamp. I modelled the organiser in Fusion 360, but because it's a complex 3D model, I'll explain the model step by step and what I intended with some of the steps I took.

First, I made the base out of one sketch. I chose the dimensions of 16.5 cm in height, 24 cm in width, and 20 cm in depth.

Then I created a "mezzanine" using the Construct feature. In the end, its purpose would be to separate the cables and tissues from each other.

However, I wanted a proper order for the cables, so I made a "pass" for each cable (and made it for more cables than I currently need, because what if I need another one in the future?).

Then I moved away from the cables and focused on the tissue area. It needed a hole through which I could pull out the tissues one by one.

Back to the cable area. I cut a passage for each cable to ensure its position was stable yet flexible.

Because I wasn't sure if I would always need the cables only in the front of the box, I made two more tunnels on the side.

I was still missing one more hole (guys!) – for the cable of my iPhone charging station. I made it a little bigger because I wanted the cable to move quickly and easily pull out.

I wanted to solve the Apple Watch charging problem as well. I had to think a lot of about at first. Eventually, I came up with a way to stretch the cable from above. First, I made a hole for the charger.

Then I cut a tunnel for it and a hole so the standard USB cable could slide through it.

Next, I made a hole at the top so the cable couldn't be seen from above and the front.

That was all I did in Fusion 360. The exported STL displayed in PrusaSlicer with 0.3 DRAFT quality required almost two days of printing time. I "prayed" a lot during bridging because I hadn’t calibrated it in the printer at the time. Simultaneously, I didn't have enough room for the brim. However, in the end, it worked. It has printing issues, but it fulfils its goal :)

Other views, from below and behind.

I attached a thin double-sided sticker to the Apple Watch charger so the charger would not pull out.

I dragged the cable through the dedicated modelled path.

I dragged the other cables as well. The advantage is that they can be pulled out and pulled back when I need them.

The result. The table is beautifully clean and organised. The box hides all the cable mess.

Would I do something differently now? Maybe I'd make the stand an inch taller because I already have a much bigger iPhone. I would also make thinner walls, print it slowly, and round a lot of edges. But I'll keep it for a few years :) It was one of my first models and prints, after all.

STL file

• Organiser