Securing furniture

[Myrrhine]

Our nursery is small with sharply slanted ceilings. We were planning to use a dresser as a changing table, but there are very few walls where we could actually place a piece of furniture and stand upright to change a baby.

Is there anyway to secure furniture to the floor rather than a wall? Or perhaps very long (4-6 feet) furniture-wall straps might work?

[mannah]

Could you secure it at the base of the piece versus the top? Secure it to the wall but closer to the floor?

[Myrrhine]

What I would ideally like to do is have the dresser several feet from a wall so that it is in a spot where the ceiling is higher, so the strap would still need to be longer, but it would still be better to have it lower. I will look to see if that is a safe option!

[mannah]

Oh I get it--sorry! If it's a dresser that's low enough to change the baby on, you might not need to secure it to the floor since it would have a pretty low center of gravity. Maybe I'm still not getting it though?

[Myrrhine]

It seems like the recommendation is to secure any drawer furniture no matter how low or heavy, but maybe that is just alarmist worrying? I will have to investigate further. Thanks for your input!

[picksthemusic]

Mar 26, 2014 15:06:05 GMT -5 Myrrhine said:

It seems like the recommendation is to secure any drawer furniture no matter how low or heavy, but maybe that is just alarmist worrying? I will have to investigate further. Thanks for your input!

TBH, we haven't secured any furniture, and DD is 2 1/2. We will be securing tall bookcases once we move into our new home, but if your LO isn't mobile, you really have no reason to secure the stuff. Unless you live in an area that gets a lot of earthquakes or something.

[rbp]

Mar 26, 2014 15:06:05 GMT -5 Myrrhine said:

It seems like the recommendation is to secure any drawer furniture no matter how low or heavy, but maybe that is just alarmist worrying? I will have to investigate further. Thanks for your input!

Is this something you need to do before the baby is mobile?

[Myrrhine]

Theoretically I thought I would secure the furniture at some point before the baby shows an interest in climbing. (Of course there won't be any hazard right away when he is born )

I am puzzling over it now because of the cramped nursery space. The location and size of each piece I pick affects the size of all of the other things that can reasonably fit in the space. Even if the "things" are only dresser, crib, chair, bookshelf.

Eta: so if I can safely position a dresser away from a wall, it opens up a lot of options for me. If the dresser/ changing table will eventually have to be placed against a wall for safety, it will have to be much smaller, and I will have to rethink my other furniture.