My kitchen pantry is fairly small. It’s actually no larger than the average coat closet. I have to use that space as efficiently as possible, and not waste any of it.

I improved the situation a few years ago by hanging a wire rack on the back of the pantry door. That enabled me to move a bunch of stuff off the shelves, freeing up more room. Spices featured prominently, of course (even though I don’t keep that many).

Unfortunately, those spices have been rattling around in that wire rack every time I open the door – literally – ever since. It’s annoying. Sometimes they even fall out!

Well, I’ve now acquired a 3D printer.

I needed a project.

Why not fix this little problem?

The Solution

OpenSCAD makes it fairly easy for a code-oriented sort (such as me) to make 3D things. It also has the distinct advantage of being free, while simultaneously not living in the cloud. It has rapidly become my tool of choice for this purpose.

So the solution was easy: a couple of OpenSCAD models exported to STL, sliced up in Bambu Studio, and printed on my new X1 Carbon. The prints took a few hours each, and the results fit snugly in my hanging rack. They even have little “castellations” on the bottom to let them sit comfortably on the wires (and hold them in place as a bonus!).

And now?

Now, my few spices hold themselves still right where they are. They don’t slide around. It’s very near perfect, though I can see a few areas for improvement in the future if I ever decide to upgrade.

If you care to take a closer look, there are additional pictures on the project page.

What’s Next?

I have a number of other ideas for organizing my pantry, hence why I bothered to set up a git repo and a project page. I’ll create more items as I have the spare time. There’s a lot of other things to design and print, though, so we’ll see how often I come back to this.

If you want to print one without bothering with OpenSCAD, the STL files are available, too. Have fun!