I just printed a travel case for my new Oral-B iO toothbrush — and it got me thinking.
Imagine if everyone had a 3D printer at home. Not as a niche hobby, but as something as common as a microwave. Suddenly, instead of waiting for replacement parts, protective covers, or travel cases to be restocked, you could just print them yourself.
And here’s the real kicker — if 3D printers became this widespread, brands would have a real incentive to design and share official 3D-printable accessories and spare parts. Some already do: Phillips provides Fixables, spare part designs for their trimmers, IKEA has open-source add-ons for accessibility, Prusa designs printable upgrades for their own printers, and Valve even released CAD files for the Steam Deck.
The result? Less waste, more personalization, and fewer broken products collecting dust just because one tiny piece snapped.
I honestly think we’d see a major shift in how we consume and repair everyday objects if 3D printing was truly mainstream.
So here’s my question: if you had a 3D printer at home, what’s the first thing you’d print?
