Anchoring furniture to the wall?

vtkgirl77 · July 2011

We recently got new furniture for our master bedroom and for DD#1's room. Both dressers came with anchoring kits which we haven't installed yet.

My questions are have you anchored furniture in your house, what furniture did you anchor, and how did you decide which furniture to anchor?

So far, we only have anchored a tall bookshelf in the family room which I feel is the biggest risk item of tipping over since it's so tall and slender.

On one hand, I want to make sure our house is safe for the kids and that there aren't major safety risks in the house. But on the other hand, you can't possibly eliminate every risk in the house and I don't want to go overboard and anchor ever single piece of furniture to the walls (for example, we currently have a total of 6 dressers in all of the bedrooms). So, where do you draw the line on what to anchor?

victoria1212 · July 2011

my kiddo is a total climber so we have anchored anything that has the potential to be climbed and if climbed would topple over. So bookshelves, TV stand, dressers with mirrors attached, tall dressers, etc...

VAJuneBride07 · July 2011

We're doing - hopefully this weekend - the very tall tippy bookcases in our living room and the TV to the TV stand. That's it. DD isn't anywhere else right now by herself and we don't have any dressers that are particularly tippy. I think if anything seems prone to tip with some pulling, I'd anchor it. But if it slides rather than tips, then I would hope it would be fine (with supervision).

Sofka · July 2011

we have the dresser in DS's room (it's the tall kind) and the bookshelves in each kid's room anchored. The dresser in our room and DD's room is the long and not tall kind.

Do you guys remember that episode of Desperate Housewives where they reveal what happened to the real Dylan and it turns out she died when climbing on a dresser in her room to reach a doll and the dresser crushed her? I had nightmares of that happening to DD for weeks after that!!

WinesNot Whines · July 2011

We anchored the TV to the TV stand, but that's it so far. We may anchor some of our dressers in the future. We put locks on M's dresser drawers so he can't open them and use them to climb up.

tracy042206 · July 2011

We anchored the tall chest of drawers in Maggie's room but not the one that is shorter. I don;t even think I could pull it over hanging on it and she cannot open the drawers on it to climb it - if she could then I would anchor it too. I also did not acnhor the short bookcase since it is not heavy or something that would hurt her if it tipped. We have otherwise removed tall shelving and a DVD cabinet from the living room since they were a little hazardous and the kids would just get into them anyway.

****AWS**** · July 2011

None of our furniture is anchored with either kids, I just keep a close eye on them.

vtkgirl77 · July 2011

Thanks ladies. It's good to hear what others are doing. I think for now I'll anchor the furniture in her room because that's the only place that she will be for an extended time by herself (once we move her out of the crib to her bed). Then I'll just take it from there.

kastle · July 2011

We've anchored anything tall. dressers, bookcases, cabinets, etc. but, honestly, most of our furniture is low & wide & not much of a tipping hazard.

frogdogny · July 2011

We had a shelving unit tip over on DD2 in our playroom when she was trying to get something off a high shelf. Thankfully she wasn't terribly hurt but it scared the bejeezus out of both of us. It was anchored the very next day.

IMO, if a piece of furniture comes with anchors, they should be used.

I think I remember reading somewhere that anything over 3.5' tall should be anchored, but I can't remember the exact height they stated (the unit that fell on DD was 4' tall x 2' wide x 1' deep) or where I even read that. Use your best judgment and don't ever assume that "my kid knows not to climb/reach/grab/pull on furniture" (mine did and it still happened) or that "I will always be supervising them" (no you won't. period.). And keep in mind that it isn't just height that matters, but width too.

JKM416 · July 2011

EVERYthing in our house is anchored if it's near a wall. We've heard enough second-hand horror stories to not be willing to take any chances - and surprisingly often they're about kids who are old enough to know better and are heavy enough to pull the furniture down on them (like 5+ years old). I don't know if our kids, at their current weights, would be able to. But we figure why wouldn't we take five minutes to drill a few holes? I'm sure most people would think we've gone overboard. DD has never been a climber, so we probably didn't need to do as much with her. DS does his share of scaling tables and upholstered furniture, so I know the house can't be made 100% safe. But every bookcase, dresser, night stand, TV stand, etc. is secure, at least. They know they're not supposed to climb, but I'm well aware that they "conveniently forget" that rule at times. If I found DS climbing or on top of a heavy piece of furniture, at least I'd know that the worst he could do was get hurt falling off of it - instead of it falling on him.

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