s/o anchoring furniture

kcisthebombdotcom · February 2013

Does everyone here really have every piece of furniture anchored in their house?

I admit I never thought to do this. I suppose this is my FFFC. I mean, I don't utilize a bookshelf in an area the kids have access to and our TV is mounted on the wall--but we have two armoires that aren't anchored. They pull the drawers open and pull clothes out but I can't see how that's going to make something that weighs hundreds of pounds topple over on them and kill them. Even if they managed to climb them without me noticing I can't see how something that weighs 25/33lbs is going to have the force to pull something down that heavy.

School me guise.

kwitt22 · February 2013

No. Our TV has straps on it. We are going to do DD's bedroom furniture and that is prob it. We haven't done it yet, bc she is never in there unsupervised and still in a crib. It is really the only other piece of furniture she could pull down. Others are too heavy I can't pull them down... (yes I tried lol).

mben1119 · February 2013

We have the straps to anchor our TV, but DH just needs to do it. I haven't anchored any of the furniture, though I should.

RondackHiker · February 2013

It happened to my friend. Her daughter has a SOLID wood dresser that took three adults to move into the house when they bought it.

Her dd opened all the drawers and it tipped. The open drawers filled with clothes weighed enough to throw off the center of balance and it tipped.

My friend didnt hear it fall, since it was muffled by landing on her kid. She was one room away.

Thank god her dd is okay.

kj07 · February 2013

I think it depends - if the item is top-heavy, it can easily end up toppling even if it seems steady. And that could be something like emptying the lower drawers/shelves while the upper ones remain full.

RondackHiker · February 2013

I didn't answer. We have shelves, dressers, and DS wooden play kitchen anchored. We do not have DH's desk, but it is set up so it'd hang on another piece of furniture before tipping more than a few inches. We also tried to tip it before we positioned it, and were unable to. It isn't set against a wall.

We did not anchor tables.

Our tv is on the wall, but was secured when on a shelf.

It takes five minutes and less than five bucks to anchor furniture. It isn't hard. Why is there hesitation? If the furniture is so heavy it's unlikely to tip, you're not moving it around much, so just secure it.

LaylaPartDeux · February 2013

Any top heavy piece of furniture we have is anchored. The tv is also anchored. In total, there are about a dozen pieces anchored throughout the house.

I might be overly paranoid to some, but there were 3 different stories here locally over the summer of furniture or TVs falling on toddlers and killing them.

I have so many different worries as a mom. Any way that I can ease one of those, I'm all for it.

missymo · February 2013

I have a couple of things anchored. A tall shelf in my daughter's room, the television to the wall, a shelf in the kitchen with heavy appliances, etc. But certainly not everything.

mom2pottamus · February 2013

A few weeks ago I had my husband anchor our one freestanding TV to the back of the chest, but the kids like to dance around it and even though it was solid it was making me nervous.

DD is in a crib, but DS isn't and I don't have his furniture anchored. When we bought his dresser we paid big money for a version that will not tip over with all drawers open--and we have tried. DD has the same dresser.

I do think it also depends on your kids...DS is not a climber, never has been so I don't worry with him. DD is a huge climber, so once she is out of the crib her room will probably get a little more security.

smerka · February 2013

If they pull all the drawers open, a dresser will tip without a problem. My older son pushed his over from the side by pushing his converted crib next to it and climbing up. He no longer has a dresser in his room or the toddler bed. He's a major climber. He recently figured out how to get up on the kitchen counters without any help from a chair. He just shimmies himself up in a corner.

RayRay007 · February 2013

When DD starts playing unsupervised in the 'rumpus room' I'm going to strap the TV to the wall. Right now she has a low, wide dresser that I don't think needs to be anchored, and she nevers plays alone in her room right now, but we're probably going to get different furniture when we move her into her toddler room, and if it is a high dresser, it will be anchored for sure. We're just getting rid of tall bookcases and packing up our books because we need the room, but if we ever have tall bookcases they will be anchored.

As far as how a kid topples over a dresser, if they pull the top drawers open and not the bottom drawers (or if you pull out all of the drawers at once) it becomes very unbalanced.

jorkz821 · February 2013

We did a large bookcase in the bonus room and the small bookcase and dresser in her room. We don't have anything downstairs that isn't built in.
Come to think of it though we haven't done the tv upstairs, but then it's quite small and we're rarely there.

Libby1978 · February 2013

We did anchor our tv into the wall in the living room because it is sitting on a shelf low enough for Oliver to reach. Outside of that we have not and will not anchor anything else. He doesn't have any heavy furniture in his room. All he really has is his bed & dresser. His dresser is a cheap & light weight. It's also pretty short, so he can open and see into the top drawer already. We have some heavier furniture in the other bedrooms, but he is never in those rooms unsupervised.

catycate · February 2013

Nope. We don't even have the TV strapped yet. Our house is pretty tiny, and I don't really leave him unsupervised. Plus, he isn't a huge climber, KWIM? If he starts to be a crazy kid climber, we would. We also don't have any huge furniture. We are going to strap his dressers when he moves to a big boy bed.

Ms5586 · February 2013

His bookshelf/toy shelf (expedit from IKEA) is anchored in his room, and so is the expedit in his playroom. None of our bedroom furniture is anchored because he's never in their unsupervised. Our bookshelves in the living room are anchored, because they could tip easily. We don't have our tvs anchored, because DH is mounting them to the wall.

acaudill75 · February 2013

Doesn't most children's furniture come with straps and anchors and such? I know the stuff we got from Ikea did, gave instructions on how to do it and everything. I've watched DD1 on her monitor move her plastic nightstand around in the morning and climb on it to reach things (everything else is anchored down). I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving her alone in her room without precautions. If kids furniture doesn't come with, it should. Maybe that is something that should be mandated by law, like car seats and stuff.

nikip6454 · February 2013

Right now I don't really have anything that needs to be anchored. When we move DD into her new bedroom with new furniture, I will have that anchored. Right now she doesn't play in her room, it is just for diaper changes, sleeping and book reading (there isn't anything to be anchored anyways). Her play area, our living room, had a bookcase but that was moved into a room she doesn't have access to.

RondackHiker · February 2013

Inkogneetoh:
Wouldn't the furniture have to be a certain height to tip?I posted in emloali's thread asking about strapping the furniture because along with KC I've never heard of this before. nbsp;H is still unemployed at home so this will be his major project for tomorrow.nbsp;

I responded to you there. I believe the rule of thumb is if it is taller than it is wide, if it has drawers or doors, or if it has things stacked on it, like televisions or heavier artwork, it should be secured.

hmp1 · February 2013

We haven't done my office (3 bookshelves) but I am now thinking we should. We keep the doors closed and locked but there is always that what if, so why not just do it.

chardonnay24 · February 2013

We only have the big dresser/bookshelf combo in his room anchored. The TV is mounted on the wall, but nothing else in the house is secured.

IUIBaby · February 2013

A couple things.

Wufroggy79 · February 2013

Our shelves and bookcases are all mounted to the wall. For her dresser, it would take adult men to pull that heavy mess over so it is not mounted.

jlw2505 · February 2013

We have the dressers in their rooms anchored. The only furniture in each of their rooms bedside the bed is a small bookshelf that is short but long and it is not a solid back so no real need. We do have a very tall bookcase that is anchored in the living room but we did that long before we had the kids based on the fact of where it is and the style - it has doors that swing open, its on carpet in an area that gets a lot of traffic and the company recommends it. We do not have the dressers in our room or anything else anchored. The girls are never in our room unless we are in their with them.

And to the comment about how can a huge dresses fall when the drawers are open - trust me it can, I have seen it done! Not with a long dresser but with the thinner taller ones, its very easy.

We had the girls in beds at 18 and 17 months and wanted to make sure that if they get out of bed, we didn't have to worry.

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