Glossary
Anti-tip anchor
A strap or bracket that secures furniture like dressers and bookcases to the wall to reduce tip-over risk.
An anti-tip anchor is hardware, typically a strap, cable or L-bracket, that attaches a piece of furniture to a wall stud so the furniture is far less likely to tip forward. It is most associated with dressers and bookcases, which can become top-heavy once drawers are opened or a child climbs to reach something, but the same principle applies to any tall furniture in a nursery or child's room.
Most furniture designed for nurseries now ships with an anchor kit in the box, but the kit only works if it is actually installed into a wall stud or with hardware rated for the wall type, not just pressed into drywall. Because nurseries are rearranged often, anchors need to be reinstalled every time a dresser or bookcase moves to a new wall, not just set up once at initial setup.
A common gap is anchoring the dresser but not the bookcase or the TV stand, treating tip-over prevention as a single item to check off rather than a rule for every tall, freestanding piece in the room. Hand-me-down furniture is another area to double check, since older pieces may not include an anchor kit at all and need one purchased separately.