An Almost Accident and the Importance of Anchoring Furniture

Is the furniture in your home secure? I recently shared a number of baby-proofing solutions that help keep my home safer despite the curiosity that comes with two young children. In addition to covering electrical outlets and locking cabinets full of dangerous household products, I also made sure that no furniture could tip and crush my precious babies. And I will never be more grateful that I did than after a scary experience that I had the other morning.

After my daughter got up Thursday morning, I went into her room to set out her clothes for the day while she ate breakfast at the dining room table. I opened the two bottom drawers on her dresser to get the clothing out. Her pants are in the bottom drawer and her shirts are in the next drawer up. I first pulled out the bottom drawer, but, as I pulled out the next drawer to pick out a coordinating top and bottom, the dresser nearly tipped over on me!

Thank goodness for furniture wall mounts. Instead of falling over, the heavy dresser only tipped a bit before catching against the mount. I freaked out a bit as the dresser began tipping, images of my daughter or son crushed beneath. I shudder to think about the potential injuries – or death – that my precious babies could have sustained had my husband not already attached the dresser securely to a stud in the wall. That is why it is important to get customized furniture for your home so that you can incorporate additional safety features into it. You can, for instance, look for a business that provides woodworking Montreal services (or elsewhere) that can assist you in designing dressers, cupboards, and other furniture pieces based on your preference.

Even scarier than the dresser tipping over is that I frequently open both bottom drawers simultaneously while folding clean laundry. I usually fold the laundry in my bedroom and have my daughter put away her own clean clothes. Just a few days before, I had opened both drawers so that my daughter could put away all her clothes by herself. If not for the wall mount, my daughter could very easily have been crushed by her seemingly innocuous dresser. The newest safety rule in my house is that my daughter can open only one drawer at a time on her dresser.

The importance of anchoring furniture cannot be overstated here. I’ve heard about accidents where these things have injured innocent bystanders, and the matter has reached the courts. I shouldn’t be surprised, since people similar to this St Louis personal injury lawyer have made a career out of getting justice for the injured. However, I don’t want me or my family to be one of these cases.

Therefore, I think that childproofing is a necessity to avoid catastrophic accidents. If you do have furniture that might be hazardous to your child, I suggest you get rid of them (maybe drop them off at a donation center) and purchase much safer and sturdier ones.

I am a proponent of baby-proofing to the extreme. My almost accident highlights the important of anchoring tippable furniture. If your furniture is not secure, seriously think about making your home safer today.