Keep Shelving Safe For Small Children

The saying “what goes up, must come down” takes on special significance when what’s up are shelves that could hurt a young person if they came crashing down.

To keep displays and the furniture they’re resting on from toppling over onto a child, exercise a few precautionary measures.

For starters, be sure freestanding shelves are stable. If they’re not, anchor them to wall studs with molly screws or L-brackets. Before you buy, get the lowdown on products to be sure they suit your needs. This applies to building materials if you take a do-it-yourself approach and make shelves from wood, laminate or melamine-coated particleboard.

“Complete Home Storage” (Sunset, $16.99), a handyman primer, notes that the ideal material for light loads is 1-inch thick lumber spanning 32 inches. For medium to heavy loads such as books, shorten the span to 24 or 16 inches or use 2-inch-thick lumber.

Even when shelves are well made, accidents can happen - especially if playful activity dislodges items from their perch. To prevent such a downfall, heed the following:

Prevent tots from climbing freestanding shelves and bookcases by getting a unit with cabinet doors on the bottom. Otherwise, limit your choices to what’s low.

Store books on low shelves so that toddlers can reach them easily.

Choose bookends that are not too heavy yet still hold books securely.

Keep the heaviest items on the bottom shelf and favorite playthings within reach so there’s no need, or temptation, to climb for them.

As for breakable treasures, take special measures. To reduce the risk of a fall, keep them firmly in place on a shelf with an adhesive. One formulated for this purpose is DAP Fun-Tak, a reusable blue putty that bonds just about anything to slick or hard surfaces. Sold through hardware stores, the adhesive contains no hazardous materials.