How Dangerous Is Top-Heavy Furniture? Child-Proofing and Home Safety

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If you have kids, you might have already gone out of your way to child-proof your home. You’ve safely stored chemicals behind locked cabinets and moved pills and alcohol to high shelves small kids can’t reach. You’ve secured doors, installed gates, and covered every outlet with a plastic stopper.

Everything’s set up, right?

What about your top-heavy furniture? If you haven’t secured your furniture, your child could be in danger of a dresser or wardrobe toppling over on top of them. How can you keep your heaviest furniture from posing a threat to your children?

Don’t Leave Enticing Items Visible

If you often put your child’s toys high up when they’re not playing with them, you should consider hiding them from view. If a youngster sees their favorite toy on a high shelf or atop a dresser, they might try to climb the piece of furniture to get to it. This can put them in serious danger!

Top-heavy furniture doesn’t need much of a nudge to topple forward. A toddler climbing up the shelves of a dresser can quickly become pinned under the heavy piece of furniture when it falls forward. This is potentially life-threatening! Make sure there’s nothing high up in your home that looks appealing to youngsters.

Anchor Your Furniture

Another step you can take to prevent tip-overs is to anchor your furniture. This process involves finding a sturdy stud behind your drywall and drilling an anchor in place. Then, you can use strong straps to secure the furniture in place. That way, even if a child does start tugging on your wardrobe or climbing your dresser, there’s little chance that the item will fall over on them. 

You can’t always be present when your kids are playing. That’s why it’s so important to take these safety precautions ahead of time! It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Mount Your TV

If you have a large-screen TV, you should mount it to the wall instead of setting it atop an entertainment center or dresser. This will do two things. The first is that it will make it more difficult for a child to climb or pull on the screen, resulting in them becoming pinned.

The second is that it will make your viewing experience more pleasant! It’s easier to look up at a TV screen on a wall than to look down at a screen sitting atop a dresser or entertainment stand.

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