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Organization Hack – DIY Desktop Printer Shelf from a Shoe Rack

Kylie

I love seeing pictures of dream office spaces with their lovely clean desks, their miraculous lack of cords (how…?!) and lack of computer garbage. Those gorgeous desks are pristine and professionally styled, and look like you could write a bestselling novel just by sitting at it.

But not you and me. We have all the computer junk, the printers and the external hard drives, and the the cords and the paper. Unsightly, but necessary junk.

The solution hit me one day as I was staring at my frustratingly cluttered desk. My printer was taking up way too much space! I had kind of tried to stack things on top of it, but it looked messy and was stuff was precariously tipping to the side. So much space wasted by that big ol hunk of printer.

What was that solution? A desktop printer shelf thing. Some sort of printer garage!

DIY Desktop Printer Shelf

A DIY desktop printer shelf

I have limited woodworking skills, and live in a little apartment, so making one from scratch was out of the question. So I needed to modify something existing… like a SHOE RACK!

I could probably do a whole post on unconventional ways to utilize those stackable shoe organizers, haha. They’re inexpensive and clean looking, and come in two versatile sizes. I find myself using them everywhere.

So I picked one up at Target (link to the one I bought) because it was cheaper, and I couldn’t wait to have one shipped from Amazon (link to shoe shelf on Amazon).

I measured how tall my printer is (about 7.5 inches) and added an additional 0.5 inch or so, and drilled new holes in the sides (do you have a good lil cordless drill for your DIYs?) and then assembled it. I put the caps on the screws, and there are empty holes on the side, but it doesn’t bother me much.

It just occurred to me that since the left side is up against the wall, I could totally take the caps off that side and put them on the exposed side. Duh.

Desktop Printer Shelf DIY

The printer fits in the bottom opening, along with our external hard drive. The smaller opening is perfect for a stack of printer paper and my planner or a few folders. And then you get a great shelf on top for cutesy nick-nacks or more storage space.

There ya go. DIY desktop printer shelf! Easy fix to clean up your desk!

Here’s my desk. Not as magazine-worthy, but its clean and functional and bright. This space makes me happy. I love to sew, watercolor, write, and do whatever random craft I’m into lately.

Desktop Organizer DIY

I’d love to see your cleaned up desks! Tag me on IG (@thehowtomom) so I can tell you how awesome it turned out!

***Want more easy household hacks? Check out my post about how to hack your kitchen trash can with a drill.

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DIY Desktop Printer Shelf - with a stackable shoe organizer

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