Weird topic alert.
Where do you guys keep your printer supplies? Do you have printer supplies? Maybe this is just me?
We have a lot of printers…a big crafting printer called the Pixma iP8020 and that one comes out only when I absolutely need it for a big project. I also have an all-in-one printer that I keep in my office (right now it is on the floor because my office isn’t put back together yet). And then we have little printers that I can use with my phone….ya know for the random iPhone picture that I want to wirelessly print. With all these printers, I have to have supplies….paper, ink and even random supplies like cords and things. I was thinking – where do people put all this stuff?! And is it normal to have pictures with your printers 🙂
That being said – we have a weird set up and maybe I need to tweak it. Maybe you can help make suggestions. Right now this is what we have going on. One printer is in the living room – just as storage because it is my big one and this big cabinet is the only spot I had to stash it. I pull it out when I need it but usually that means setting it up on the kitchen table.
The other printer is currently on our floor in the office because I am trying to figure out the office situation. Jeremy and I can’t live without an all-in-one printer (both for the blog and for Jeremy’s work and for things like printing projects for the kids school) so we had to figure out where we could plug it in and keep it for a hot second. I feel like my desk area would be the natural solution to where this needs to go but it means that I would need to build something custom.
We keep some of our paper downstairs (one stack near our printer and one stack of cardstock in a living room cabinet just in case the kids want to doodle!) and then also in some in the office but then there are a whole bunch of ‘other supplies’.
Other supplies would be the stuff that comes with the printer (like cords and accessories) and then also specialty paper (photo paper, large print paper, etc.) upstairs in our sitting room. See that cabinet on the far wall? It’s my go-to for all things printer.
On the bottom shelf there are four baskets with lids…..these baskets I got at ATHOME. It’s hard to find baskets that fit a certain size, even harder to find ones that have lids, and darn near mission impossible to get FOUR matching ones! So when I got these, it felt like heaven.
One of them is all ink, one is all photo paper (mostly 4×6’s and 5×7’s because that is what I use the most but then also specialty ones like square and sticker papers) and then one is all the cords and random accessories and the very last one has random electronics – our headphones and power cords and things like that.
Maybe I just need to take inventory of everything I have and then design something that would work for storing it all in one spot. That sounds daunting! Kinda like – hey go on a diet. Or hey go repair your roof. It’s like instant anxiety :/
So where do you guys keep your printer stuff? Do you like your system? Does it work? I love ours but the worst part is trying to find the right ink…but I would rather have it on hand than run out and have to go to the store with the kids. That isn’t pretty.
I have a laser printer for most of my printing needs. I replace the toner every few years. Photos get printed at CVS or Target or Snapfish or whatever. I hate messing with a million color cartridges.
This post just reminded me to order more ink! We tried living without a printer and it didn’t work for us so right now it’s in the office but it needs a better home because my children think its a toy!
You read my mind! We are making our never used Dining room into a sitting room. The printer stays out, on top of a small cabinet, because I use it daily. It’s not attractive and it won’t work if we put it IN the cabinet. I want to redo this area of the room along with the other parts but I’m at a loss. We don’t have a desk area and the printer really needs to stay in this room because we do use it so much.. I do keep the paper(out of the packagining) and the ink(out of boxed and in a little bin) inside of the cabinet and I’m pleased with that.
Since you have the luxury of having a dedicated office space, it seems to me that you should find a way to store all that stuff together in the office! Maybe a books shelf with deep shelves that you could set up all the printers (with them plugged in) and some boxes for all the paper and ink!
We don’t have an office. I keep mine in the pantry in the kitchen so its central and we easily access and print from it. I have one basket with all the supplies next to it.
I have one printer, one small box of paper, and when I need more toner I order it on Amazon so I don’t have to store it at my house. I don’t think most people have multiple printers and a massive amount of supplies laying around their house at any given time…
We recently took out a broken trash compactor from our kitchen and built in new shelves that space. One of the shelves holds our printer and we’ve put the printing supplies in the kitchen cabinet next to the printer. It works for us because we have a ridiculous abundance of cabinets in our kitchen. We still need to organize the cabinet with the supplies though…
Totally agree. It’s a matter of the office I have has very limited wall space (like where cords can be run to actually work) so that is why the issue exists.
xo – kb
In our office, I use a dresser. the printer and silhouette sit on top. Currently, there are 2 paper drawers, an ink drawer, a vinyl drawer, and a drawer for cutting tools.
Nothing to do with this post but I am loving your hardwood floors!! You guys picked a great color!
Ok this kind of creates more questions than answers. Ideally yes everything should be together in the office, but how far is the office from where you generally use the printers? There’s no point keeping them where they can’t be easily accessed. My first solution thought was a multi-tiered printer trolley but that probably isn’t the smartest with inquisitive little people around. Do you really need all those printers, could you streamline (even if that means buying a new one)? If the Kitchen is the hub of your home & the highest used printing area, could you set aside a cupboard to store the most used & its supplies in? On another note don’t go crazy with extra print cartridges. On seeing your cartridge basket my first thought was S.A.B.L.E (Stack Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) Beside printers habit of randomly throwing in the towel, the longer the cartridges hang around the greater chance they’ll dry up & stuff your print head. Well that’s my two bobs worth of generally unsolicitored brain dump. 🙂
We got a laser printer after our last color printer broke down. The kids are way less interested in printing out random stuff in B&W, so that’s saving us a lot of wear and tear. We have it on a shelf in our walk in closet, along with a ream of paper. It’s actually a pretty handy spot! (We also have my husband’s work computer set up in there, with multiple monitors and all that so when he’s on call and has to get up and look at people’s MRIs in the middle of the night, it’s a short commute. :)) It works well for us!
I am going to have your printer issue very soon. I need to find a way to organize my papers and cardstock etc. I was thinking about an Alex drawer set from Ikea; but I don’t know if it’s big enough……
I am going to need organization and storage because my Pixma IP8720 is coming TODAY! I have wanted this printer since you first talked about it. I was at a scrapbooking crop over the weekend and my daughter in law was using her new Cricut Air to print words on her scrapbook pages. I had Cricut envy. Then I realized it only printed in a couple thinline fonts. And I remembered this awesome printer that I could print 12×12 scrapbook pages on! And use ANY font I want.
I ordered it on Monday morning. It’s coming TODAY!! Bummer that I am going to be out of town this weekend and can’t use it. : (
I am thinking about doing the picture magnets of my grandkids as a Mother’s day gift for my daughter.
Do you have any other swell Mom’s day picture ideas?
We have a secretary desk in the dining room, we keep paper in there along with kids art supplies. But the printer doesn’t fit in it so it’s in a closet, haven’t found a good solution for it yet.
I’m curious about the little printers you mentioned, for printing photos from your phone. What do you have, and do you like it? I have an all-in-one printer/copier/scanner that sits on my desk, but I’d love to have something small and all set up for smaller sizes, so I can print from my phone.
I have the Canon Selphy but only for upstairs because it takes up such a small space. In general, my all-in-one prints from the phone too….so if I’m doing a project, that’s how I do it!
xo – kb
My printer sits on the bottom shelf near my computer. We don’t have that many supplies for it; anything we’re not using I just toss out. I don’t buy printer cartridges until I need them; usually I get an early enough warning from the printer that we never actually run out. We have papers for it higher up on the shelf; mostly just regular white paper but also labels, photo paper, etc. I buy more when we run low.
I hate having tons of extra supplies because I have a hard time keeping track of everything!