Furniture anchors and TV straps: stop the dresser before the climb

What to buy first

One anchor kit per dresser, bookcase and TV stand, and a strap for the television, in that order, before any gate or lock. This is the section of the site with a body count behind it: the CPSC counted 217 tip-over deaths from 2013 through mid-2023, 47 percent of them involving a television, 55 percent of the victims aged one to three, and about 17,800 emergency-room injuries a year, 44 percent of them children. The argument in full, with the STURDY rule and what it does and does not cover, is do you really need to anchor furniture, and the answer is yes, including the dresser that feels heavy, including the one with the TV on it, including the one in the rental. The ranked kits are best furniture anchors; the TV straps are best TV anti-tip straps.

How the category divides

Anchors divide by what connects the furniture to the wall. Straps are nylon webbing between two brackets, with slack to pull the furniture out for cleaning; cables are steel with the same layout and no stretch; L-brackets are rigid metal that bolts the furniture flat to the wall and makes it a fixture. The trade-offs are in anti-tip straps vs brackets. Then by how the wall end mounts: a screw into a stud is the answer for every kit on the site, and the no-screw alternatives (adhesive pads, drywall anchors) are a separate, weaker class, per no-drill vs screw-in furniture anchors. The wall itself changes the hardware: drywall over studs, plaster and lath, brick and block each want a different fastener, per furniture anchors for drywall, plaster and brick. TVs are their own category because a flat screen can be strapped to the stand, strapped to the wall, or wall-mounted outright, in how to anchor a TV. The dresser walkthrough is how to anchor a dresser.

What decides the price

Almost nothing, which is the point. A two-strap furniture kit lists $12.99 at QuakeHOLD! and $9.99 on Safety 1st's Canadian site; a steel cable kit from Hangman was $14.99 at Ace when we checked; Safety 1st's TV and furniture strap set lists $14.99 there too. The most expensive anchor on the site costs less than the cheapest gate. What varies is the rating the maker publishes (Hangman states 400 pounds; most state nothing), the metal (steel cable and steel brackets versus plastic brackets and nylon), whether screws for the furniture end and the wall end are both in the box, and whether the strap has a quick-release buckle for moving the piece. A kit with published testing, all-metal parts and both sets of screws is still under $20 at list. The prices above are maker or retailer list prices on the day we checked, linked on each spec table; Amazon sets its own.

The common mistake

Screwing the wall bracket into drywall with the plastic anchor from the box. Drywall holds a picture; a falling dresser rips the anchor out with a disc of paper. The bracket goes into a stud, found with a stud finder and confirmed with a nail, or into a plaster lath or a masonry anchor rated for the wall. The second mistake is anchoring the dresser and leaving the television loose on top of it, which is the exact scenario in nearly half the deaths the CPSC counted. The third is trusting a new dresser because it passed STURDY: the ASTM F2057-23 test uses a 60-pound child load and became mandatory for dressers made after September 1, 2023, and it reduces the hazard; it does not remove it, and the rule does not cover bookcases, TV stands or anything sold before that date. Renters have a version of all three, answered in anchoring furniture in a rental. The CPSC's own guidance, in its Anchor It! campaign, is the same: anchor it, in every room, whether or not the piece feels heavy enough to stay up.