Aluminum, Mirror Sliding Doors & Enclosures Blog

Tricks for Organizing Your Kitchen Cupboards

Keeping your kitchen cupboards organized is the first step to enjoying using your kitchen. However, it’s not an easy step for everyone. Organization is a skill that takes practice. Furthermore, kitchen cupboards involve fitting many differently-shaped items, all with different uses and levels of importance. It’s not as straightforward as packing things into a box for later; the contents of your cupboards need to remain accessible by priority. So, here are some tricks for organizing your kitchen cupboards.

Keeping Useful Backstock Only

The first step in organizing your kitchen cupboards is to only keep backstock that’s useful. What is backstock? It’s all of that food you keep around because you’ll use it one day, but not all today. Canned veggies and bags of rice are great backstock for when you want to make soup one rainy day.

However, a huge chunk of people’s cupboard space is often overtaken by backstock food items. If you can never seem to make room for new groceries, and you can’t really figure out why, there’s a good chance it’s that you simply have too much backstock.

To cut down on how much space is taken up by backstock, start by checking expiration dates. You’ll be surprised how many things have been sitting untouched for 5 years.Yes – even when you swear you didn’t buy them that long ago.

After removing expired foods, if you still have quite a few boxes of instant food or canned items, pull some of it out for use this week. Make 3 recipe piles on your counter and pile some backstock food into them. This week, you can surely use some of it up by making soup, chili, a rice dish, or some other food that uses lots of preserved food.

Separating Spices

One of the biggest mistakes people make with their cupboard space is keeping their spices with everything else. Separate your spices. No matter how you cut it, spices do not stack well. Trying to find what you’re looking for will lead to knocking over stacks and making an organizational disaster.

Instead, opt for a wire spice rack that can be mounted on the pantry well. Another option is a countertop spice rack – maybe one that swivels. But, perhaps our favorite method of storage: use a drawer. A shallow drawer that isn’t big enough for much else is great for storing spices. Lay them down so their labels face up and line them up in your drawer. Finding spices will become easy as pie and they won’t fall all over while you look.

Storing Appliances Outside the Pantry

Another mistake that’s commonly made is storing appliances in the pantry. Organizing your kitchen cupboards becomes way easier when you don’t have to navigate around a crockpot. If you have a tall pantry as well as cabinets, store appliances in lower cabinets or on a wire rack instead of in the pantry. The pantry is easier to access than lower cupboards, so it should be used for food, which you need more often.

Managing Closet Space the Easy Way

Managing your closet space can be really tricky, especially if you don’t have a lot of it. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution to managing closet space no matter how big your closet is. The trick is deciding whether your closet should be in your closet, or somewhere else. Let us explain.

Space Is Space Is Space

Many people struggle with managing closet space because they have more clothing than can fit inside of their small closet. Getting rid of clothing you don’t wear is a great idea, but it only works for people who don’t wear a notable amount of their clothing. If you have the kind of job that requires work-specific clothing, or if you keep clothes specific for workouts, you may have a lot of clothing that you wear regularly. Work clothes, everyday clothes, formal wear, gym clothes, and seasonal clothes can be a tight fit together. This is especially true if your closet isn’t even a walk-in. Fitting all of this into a shallow closet with sliding doors is a real struggle.

So, instead of trying to prune down your clothing until it fits easily into a closet that’s too small, perhaps we should expand. Creating a closet space somewhere other than the closet is an easy solution that works for many. You don’t even have to have a mansion to achieve this. If you have a spare room, or even just some unused space in your bedroom, you can expand your closet outside of its current boundaries. That is, if it’s even necessary.

Using a Closet Organizer

If you have a walk-in closet that you’re struggling to manage space in, you might just need some help. A wooden closet organizer from Keystone Home Products may be just the thing. Our closet organizers have brought life and organization back to countless walk-ins. Our organizers have shelf space, drawer space, and hanger bars as well. That makes them ideal for a variety of clothing and accessories.

If you don’t have the kind of closet that can accommodate a wooden organizer, you can install the organizer somewhere else. Anywhere that could accommodate a large bookshelf could take on a closet organizer. Really, when it comes down to it, it’s not much different from a fancy bookshelf. It just comes with a few extra storage options made for clothing.

If you don’t have free space anywhere, you can switch out something else with the contents of your closet. Put up some affordable wall-mount bookshelves and store books in your sliding-door closet. Put your organizer where the bookshelves were before. Space is space is space. A closet doesn’t have to have clothing in it.

Organization Accessories

While a closet organizer offers a great place to store many items, organization accessories never hurt. Consider a set of coat hooks for near the front door so that jackets don’t need to be stored with the contents of your closet. Maybe you could benefit from a door-hanging shoe carrier. Small shoes like sandals and heels store in these with ease. Plus, when you store these awkward shoes in a door hanger, you don’t have to worry about keeping them in place on a shelf or regular shoe rack.

How to Repair a Cracked Mirror

So your vanity mirror has cracked. Now you’re probably desperately searching online for a solution. The good news is, it’s actually not too hard to repair a cracked mirror! Mirrors are one of our most popular products here at Keystone Home Products. Therefore, we know a thing or two about them and want to share that knowledge with you.

Repair a Cracked Mirror with a Kit

The most common and easiest way to repair a mirror is with a mirror repair kit. These can be bought online or from most hardware stores. You may also find them at auto stores, since this is the same method used to repair windshields and other types of glass.

A mirror repair kit will come with a syringe, a small tube of epoxy, and a stability film. While each kit will come with its own unique instructions, they usually go something like this:

Wash your mirror to remove any dust particles or skin oils.
Put down your stability film to cover the crack. This should be put on carefully and smoothed as it’s placed to prevent any air from getting trapped.
Next, use your syringe to extract epoxy from the small tube included in the kit.
Stick the needle of the syringe very carefully through the film and into the crack.
Slowly push the plunger on the syringe down to inject the crack with epoxy. Don’t do this too fast or it may cause bubbling of the film. Give the epoxy enough time to spread so the pressure doesn’t end up on the film.
When the crack is filled with epoxy, you’ll need to leave it for 10-20 minutes to set.
After the epoxy is set, you can remove the stability film.
Then, put a drop of the epoxy cure on the crack and cover it with the curing film.
After the epoxy has cured, you can scrape any residue off with the flat edge of a razor blade and wash your mirror off.

Use Epoxy Without a Kit

While a kit makes this easiest, if you have some epoxy lying around and don’t feel like hunting down a kit, you can follow these steps with your own epoxy, syringe, and adhesive film. We recommend getting a kit for most people, since the average person doesn’t have a syringe or adhesive on hand.

Replace Cracked Mirrors

Trying to repair a vanity mirror with a mirror repair kit is honestly only worth it if you’re on quite a tight budget. We can’t wholly recommend it to anyone with some pocket change. Instead, it’s much easier, much faster, and has much better results to just replace your cracked mirror.

If you need to replace a cracked vanity mirror, you can get a new vanity mirror of any size from Keystone Home Products in Toronto. For help installing a new mirror, check out our guide here.

Replace Foggy Shower Enclosures with Clear Glass

Whether you’ve just got poor quality glass or you bought a home with intentionally fogged or frosted glass shower enclosures, we believe you can do better. Foggy shower enclosures might offer some privacy, but how much privacy do you really need when you have a bathroom door you can lock? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons to replace foggy shower enclosures with clear glass.

Replace Old Shower Enclosures

Sometimes, when your shower enclosure is really old, the glass starts to get foggy. This can happen for a number of reasons. If you clean the enclosure with a brush and chemical cleaner, it can be abrasive enough to scratch cheap glass. Years of little hairline scratches can leave glass looking less than crisp.

Additionally, if you have hard water, you can get a buildup on your shower enclosure. If your water has something like calcium in it, this buildup will be white and leave your glass looking slightly opaque. While this kind of buildup can usually be removed with special cleaner, those cleaners can be abrasive as well and may have a hard time getting into corners.

If you think it’s time to ditch the old shower enclosure that’s been in your house for the last 20 years, you’re in the right place. Keystone Home Products considers glass shower enclosures one of our specialties.

Replace Frosted Glass Shower Enclosures

Back in the 90s and early 2000s, frosted glass shower enclosures were a big thing. Nowadays, high quality, clear glass is preferable. This is for a number of reasons.

Clearer glass allows more light flow.
Completely transparent glass allows you to see into the shower which makes the bathroom look and feel bigger.
Frosted glass is often frosted because the opaque nature of it hides imperfections that make the glass weak. That means it’s more likely to break.

If you want beautiful, crystal clear glass that will last longer, look better, and feel nicer to shower in, replace foggy shower enclosures with clear glass shower enclosures from Keystone Home Products.

High Quality Glass Shower Enclosures

When buying a shower enclosure, you don’t want to buy from a disreputable store, but you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg either. Big name home products stores will charge way more than their products are worth, just so you can say you bought it from them. If you want quality at a reasonable price, rely on Keystone Home Products. We’ve been serving Toronto homeowners for years and haven’t left them disappointed.

If you need more information about what kind of shower enclosures we have available, give us a call. Or, visit our store in person and take a look at what we have in stock. You can also custom order shower enclosures from us if you need something with unusual dimensions.

Why You Should Use Wire Shelving for Clothing Stores

Clothing stores have a lot of unique needs when it comes to storage and hardware. For one thing, they need storage that people won’t see, but also additional storage that displays products visibly. One of the most invaluable solutions is wire shelving for clothing stores. Let’s take a look at why.

Lets Fabric Breathe

One of the #1 reasons to opt for wire shelving is that it’s so breathable. A lot of boutiques and clothing stores go for wooden shelving because it’s sturdier and looks high quality. However, the way it treats clothing doesn’t make those perks worthwhile.

Wooden shelving allows little breathability. The clothes on the bottom of a stack will absorb that wood smell, pick up dust from the shelf surface, and can even grow mildew if in a humid shop or environment.

Wire shelving, on the other hand, allows lots of air flow. Moisture and smells won’t get trapped in your clothing fabrics. Plus, wire shelving has minimal surface area for collecting dust, which means your clothes won’t pick it all up when stacked atop it.

Prevents Pests

Clothing stores don’t always change stock frequently, which means a stack of shirts may remain in the same place for many months. New shirts may be added to the stack, but they may not be fully removed for a while.

Solid surfaces, like those of wooden shelving, offer a great place for pests to hide or make their home. If you have a row of clothing stacks with a solid surface up against the wall behind it, you’re making pest real estate. Bugs that eat fabric, mice looking for a warm place to build a nest, and more can make home behind your clothing. This may be easy to notice on lower shelves, but higher up, you can’t see what’s going on without deliberately checking.

Constantly checking for signs of pests (which are pretty good at not being seen) takes more time than a clothing store owner wants to spend on such a task. A better, easier, and quicker solution is to opt for wire shelving. Without a solid surface to hide them from view, from light, and from falling through, most pests will steer clear.

Allows Stacking and Hanging

Wire shelving isn’t just better for the longevity of your clothing products, it’s also better for display practicality. Wire shelving can accommodate stacks of clothes as well as hangers. This presents 3 great options for displays:

You can display more clothing variety by stacking shirts above hung shirts of a different type.
Stacked clothes can provide quick stock for the hangers below. This makes it easy for customers to see the shirt without unfolding it. If they take the product on the hanger, staff can quickly put a new one in its place.
Outfits can be paired vertically. Shirts that go well with a set of jeans can be hung below that stack of jeans. This is great when you have an outfit on display. When someone falls in love with it, they can get the whole thing in one place.

Affordable from Keystone Home Products

If you need wire shelving for clothing stores in Toronto, Keystone Home Products is the place to get it. We offer high quality, affordable wire shelving for clothing stores. Buy storage and display solutions that will last. Contact us if you have any questions and we’ll be happy to help.

Home Goods for Your Basement Renovation

If you’re planning to renovate your basement, there are some things you’ll need. While many department stores offer the cushy furnishings you’ll need, or the bathroom towels, Keystone offers something different. We have less thrilling, but incredibly vital, parts, like shelving, mirrors, and closet doors. Here’s a little bit about what we offer in terms of home goods for your basement renovation.

Shelving

Every basement needs some shelving. Well, any room needs some shelving, really. Your basement is no different. And, after you’ve renovated it, it will be completely bare and in need of some vital shelving additions.

Display

First off, you’ll need display shelving. Most basements have some need for display. Whether you need shelves for books, video games, decor, or something else, we’ve got you covered.

Our wooden organizers are great for these purposes. While they’re usually marketed toward closet storage, there’s nothing about them that dictates they’re strictly for closet use. Our wooden organizers are great for visible storage and displays as well.

In fact, they can even be used as entertainment centers. What sets them apart from other entertainment centers is the abundance of storage. Many TV stands offer the very least in terms of storage. For someone with a movie or game collection, a set of gaming consoles, or the desire to border the TV with bookshelves, standard TV stands don’t cut it.

Storage

Display shelving is important, but storage shelving may be even more so. Home goods for your basement renovation must include shelving in places like closets and bedrooms. While the aforementioned wooden organizers are great for closets, we can’t ignore our wire shelving. This shelving is great for smaller closets that don’t have room to accommodate an entire organizer. It allows fabric to breathe, preventing mildew, closet smell, and pests.

Closet Doors

Once the structure is built, you may come to realize your closet is a bit… open concept. That is to say, you’ll need some closet doors. Keystone Home Products has a variety of closet doors. We offer sliding doors as well as bifold doors. Either style can be bought covered with mirrors as well. Mirror closet doors allow comfort while dressing and help to make a space feel bigger. This is vital if your basement bedroom is a small guest room.

Mirrors

While mirrors on the backs of closet doors are one way to offer you or your guests a reflection, we can’t forget the vanity. If you’ve added a bathroom during your basement renovation, a vanity mirror is one of the home goods you can’t do without.

Here at Keystone, you can get a mirror in any size or dimensions. Check out our handy installation guide to see how you can install it yourself.

Shop Keystone Home Products

If you’re shopping for home goods for a basement renovation in Toronto, Keystone is the local home goods store for you. We’re right next door and offer everything you need to turn an empty, finished basement into part of your home. Give us a call if you need help or have questions about our products.

Closet Organization Tricks from the Home Professionals

When things begin to get a bit cluttered or messy in your closet, it’s time to get organizing. But where do you start? Keystone Home Products specializes in home products and organization. Here are some closet organization tricks you can’t do without.

Cut Down on Clutter

Getting rid of clutter doesn’t have to mean making yourself sad. A lot of TV shows and famous organizers of years’ past have pushed clients and followers to throw out anything they don’t use every day. But this is totally unnecessary and encourages people to get rid of things with sentimental value. Don’t get rid of things you love because you don’t have enough room in your closet at the moment. If you’re struggling to find room for things you genuinely love and use, there’s a better way to make space.

Instead, invest in a proper closet organizer to help you make room for your belongings. A huge part of organization is having the right organizational equipment. How can you properly organize things if your closet has nothing but a hanger bar?

What you do want to get rid of are things you aren’t fond of. Keeping clothes that you’ve been hoping to fit into for years or things you keep hoping will spark your interest again later is a waste of space. Every time you see those things, they simply remind you that you shouldn’t be happy in the present because you haven’t reached a goal that may not even be important to you anymore.

Instead, make room for the clothes you love and wear right now. You’ll make a lot of space in your closet and feel happier when looking for something to put on.

Accessible Storage

A lot of people find their main source of storage to be cardboard boxes. The only things you should be storing in boxes are the things in the attic. When you store things in boxes, they don’t get used. Even with markings on the cardboard, it’s hard to remember what exactly is in which box and digging through them is a pain. Plus, cardboard boxes are an eyesore in any closet.

Instead, buy organizers of any kind. There are full closet organizers for clothing and small sets of drawers for accessories. Try a complete jewelry box with spaces for rings and hanging necklaces. Get a display box for watches. Your clothing and accessories should be easy to find and stored in a way that makes you feel good about your closet.

Give Jewelry Its Own Space

Likewise, don’t dump jewelry into a drawer or box. If you wear jewelry, it can be tempting to just put it all in one spot. This is absolutely the wrong way to go. Necklaces will get tangled and things can get broken.

Buy a jewelry box or find designated places for each jewelry type. Putting a row of hooks on the wall for necklaces will prevent them from tangling. Buying a ring cushion or a hand-shaped stand will keep rings from getting lost behind the organizer. Jewelry is expensive and should be treated properly to avoid damaging it. Plus, it looks nicer and feels better to have things stored neatly.

Save Space

A lot of people store miscellaneous boxes in their bedroom closet. However, closet space is limited and this can make it hard to access the things you actually use on a daily basis. Therefore, your closet should be for clothing and accessories only. Cramming extra space with memory boxes or seasonal decorations hurts the functionality and appeal of the closet.

Use the attic, basement, or a closet in a spare room for boxes you don’t access very often. If you live in an apartment or other small space, consider buying some shallow under-bed storage bins for these things instead.

If you have any questions about the products we have to offer at Keystone Home Products, give us a call. We look forward to hearing from you!

Why You Should Upgrade Your Vanity Mirror

People frequently underestimate how much of an effect a vanity mirror has on their self perception. Every time you shower, you look into that mirror to get ready for the day. You brush your teeth at that mirror. You check your outfit in that mirror. A vanity mirror is often the only place someone ever really sees themself. Let’s talk about why you should upgrade your vanity mirror. There’s a lot more to it than you might think!

Self Perception

Because most people use their vanity mirror as their main mirror – the only place they usually look at their reflection – the type and quality of vanity mirror that we have can have a profound effect on our sense of self perception.

If you only ever see yourself in a scratched, cracked mirror, or one that’s outdated, you can begin to associate those things with your own appearance. If the paint around your mirror is chipping, if there’s mold from the bathroom’s condensation, those will too. That’s because, if you only ever see yourself paired with undesirable qualities, your self worth can fall.

If you don’t feel good looking into your current vanity mirror, you should improve it. Getting a new mirror, and maybe even framing it, can make a huge difference. Looking into your vanity mirror after your shower can become a positive experience.

Environmental Comfort

Vanity mirrors don’t just affect our comfort with ourselves, they’re also an important part of our environmental comfort. If areas of your home are lacking and don’t look how you want them to, it has a negative impact on your environmental comfort. While many parts of a home are too expensive to update to many of us, a vanity mirror usually isn’t. Take control of this part of your everyday life and give it the boost it deserves. Small updates can make a huge difference in our quality of life.

Clearer Reflection

Old mirrors that have been washed and used for years can develop tiny scratches that aren’t really noticeable. The weekly – or even daily – wear and tear makes the mirror have a less clear reflection. When you upgrade your vanity mirror, you get a sharper reflection that looks great. Every reflection will look neater, clearer, and more positive.

Home Resale Value Boost

Any kind of improvement in your home can lend itself to a home resale value boost. The same goes for when you upgrade your vanity mirror. If your mirror already looks fine, it may not make much of a difference. However, if your current mirror is old, outdated, or worn out, a new vanity mirror will bring your resale value back up to where it should be in regards to your mirror.

If you don’t add a fancy frame, it may not do anything really special for resale value, but it can undo the huge loss in value caused by a dingy old mirror. After all, if a prospective buyer comes to see the house and steps into the bathroom to see a worn out mirror, it can have a surprisingly negative impact on the entire bathroom space.

If you want to upgrade your vanity mirror, come visit us at Keystone Home Products. We offer custom mirror sizes and will help you get exactly what you need.

3 Alternative Places to Use a Wooden Organizer

While wooden organizers are most commonly used in bedroom walk-in closets, they’re not limited to those spaces. These wonderful and useful units can be installed virtually anywhere in your home where they’ll find use. So, here are 3 alternative places to use a wooden organizer in your home.

The Garage

The garage is one of the most underutilized spaces in any home. Most people use the space surrounding their garage parking to store random belongings. However, because garages aren’t built for storage, these items are often stacked haphazardly, jut out into the walkway, and are hard to access.

If you like using your garage to store less delicate things, it’s one of the best alternative places to use a wooden organizer. Having a wooden organizer to assist you can make a world of difference. Wooden organizers from Keystone Home Products are shallow enough to fit comfortable along a wall and still allow walking space beside your car. They can be outfitted with shelves, drawers, hanger bars, and more.

Stack boxes on the shelves, store tools in the drawers. Use the organizer as a combination storage unit and toolbox.

The Office

If you have a home office but don’t have one of our wooden organizers, you’re missing out. Having a wooden organizer in your home office can be a game changer. The shelf spaces can be used for storing books, file boxes, binders, and more. The drawers are ideal for important files or papers that you access frequently. You can also store office supplies – such as pens, scissors, staplers, and sticky notes – in the drawers instead of cluttering up your desk.

Plus, because of the possible hanger bar additions, you can store certain formal clothing in your office instead of taking up space in your regular closet. Hang an infrequently worn suit or tux in the corner of your office where it’s easy to access but out of the way.

As an Entertainment Center

The last of our alternative places to use a wooden organizer is as an entertainment center! Surprised? Don’t be. Imagine this with me: Instead of using the wide-open clothes-hanging space for clothes, use it for a TV. Not only is the space wide and tall enough, the hanger bar at the top can be taken advantage of. Using a long strip of decorative fabric, create a curtain decoration to outline the TV. This fabric can be wrapped around the hanger bar so that it’s loose and drapey. As long as it’s secured or arranged carefully, it won’t get in the way of the screen and will, instead, provide a beautiful backdrop of color.

Drawers on either side of the TV can hold movies, games, controllers, remotes, cords, and more. Shelving above or below the TV can accommodate consoles, DVD players, VCRs and more. The possibilities are endless.

Custom Closet Doors for Unusual Closet Sizes

While homes are usually built to a certain standard, that’s not a guarantee for every home. This is especially true of homes that were built a long time ago or that were built by someone’s great granddad. When things get more personal, they also get more unusual. While unusual can be fun and attractive, it can also be a huge pain when it comes to replacing things. For example, if you have a home with unusual closet sizes, you may need some help finding custom closet doors. Fortunately, Keystone Home Products is here to help. If your closet is strangely tall or weirdly wide, we can help you replace those old doors in no time.

Sliding Custom Closet Doors

If you’re looking for sliding custom closet doors, you’ve come to the right place. Keystone Home Products has sliding closet doors of all styles. We offer a large selection of frame colors as well as different finishes for the panel doors.

Each set of doors is made to fit the closet they’re being made for. Therefore, if you have an oddly shape closet, we can make doors just for you. Don’t worry about standard closet door sizes; we’ve got you covered.

Sliding closet doors are great for saving space in a small room or building. The closet entrance can even be partially covered and still accessible.

Custom Mirror Closet Doors

We don’t just have custom panel sliding doors; we also have custom mirror closet doors. These are sliding closet doors as well, but the external side is a large mirror, the length of each door.

These are a great choice for small spaces as well. Mirrors help reflect a space back on itself. This provides an optical illusion of double the space, making your room feel less cramped. Mirrors also reflect light, which can make a little bit of sun from the window go twice as far!

If your room is short on space, custom mirror closet doors are also great for getting ready in the morning. Without room for a vanity or standing mirror, these built in mirrors offer some assistance. Check out your entire outfit before stepping out of the house.

Custom Bi-fold Closet Doors

If space is less of a concern and you would rather see your entire wardrobe at once, custom bi-fold doors may be just what you need. These two doors pull out, bending in half as they’re opened and allowing you full view of the closet. These are also ideal if you use your closet as a storage space. Sliding doors can make moving large boxes in and out of a closet difficult. Bi-fold closet doors, on the other hand, allow you to store things of all sizes within your closet.

No matter what type of doors you’re after, we’ve got what you need. Give us a call and let us know you’re looking for custom closet doors and we’ll get to work.