Last year, IKEA recalled 29 million chests of drawers after at least six children were killed by chests of drawers that fell over. If you have a toddler, you probably know you should child-proof your furniture… but things do tend to get away from us.
Photo: Tr1sha/Shutterstock
If you need encouragement, take a look at this terrifying video of a two-year-old trapped under a chest of drawers and his twin trying to get him out. (Happy spoiler: The kid is fine.)
Time to bolt your chest of drawers to the wall! For those of us who are less handy, I poked around for a few products and instructional videos to make the task easier.
If you already know what you’re doing, you can buy a kit of furniture straps online or just head to the hardware store for brackets and screws. If you need some instructional support, you can check out this eHow video (which involves some sawing) or this one from IKEA (who should certainly be up on this topic by now). I found this one from the “How to Dude”, who offers instructions using zip ties.
As I’ve found when doing little home-improvement projects, everything depends on your walls, so don’t freak out and smash things — ask me how I know — when the first strategy you try doesn’t work and you have to go back to the hardware store for anchors or mollies or a stud finder or whatever. (I once tag-teamed a home improvement project with my partner — I went to the hardware store, and then he did, and then I did, and so on, until we finally went together, and the look on the guy’s face was: “Oh, these two morons are married to each other.”)
Good luck! If you want a glimpse into the future, check out these prototypes for designs that are guaranteed to stay up, even with a kid’s weight on them. And if you think you’re out of the woods because your kids are past the toddler stage, you aren’t: Even kids 10 to 17 can be injured by falling desks, cabinets and bookshelves.
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