To not fix kallax to the wall?

[BrendaTheBlendeer]

Just got a new 4x2 kallax to go in the playroom. Fixing it to the wall is a bit annoying because the skirting gets in the way and you have to do it on a lean, so I'd prefer not to. Plus I don't have the tools/ability to do it so will have to pay someone.

AIBU to leave it unfixed? I know that there have been some terrible stories if wardrobes/chests of drawers failing on young kids but a kallax doesn't seem as much of a risk even if full of boxes.

DC are 3 and 6, never try to climb the one in the bedroom (which is fixed).

For those of you that would fix things to the wall, what age would you stop doing this?

Leaning it is nuts! We got the webbing straps that others are talking about for fixing various bits of furniture. Kalkax are pretty stable and we haven’t bothered fixing ours, but my daughter was a fair bit older when we got them with zero interest in climbing. With littlies I would fix them.

I never stopped. All our tall furniture is secure.

Our fairly tall TV unit is fastened to the wall as shown, removes the skirting issue. It’s the only piece of furniture that (currently, with a pre-walker but not yet a climber) is a risk. Once he’s more mobile we’ll do the ladder shelves and the bookcase too, although the bookcase is in the hallway and he’s never there alone. Our flat is on the market so we won’t do those until it’s really necessary, hopefully not before we move.

I have all the tall furniture attached to the wall and my kids are early teens. I don’t need that, or its contents, taking out my kids, us, or the cat.

Far from insane, it’s very common. You can keep the skirting and put it back. It produces a much better finish than a cheap clip (or a piece of wood), which means the unit will never stand flush to the wall and look rather amateurish.

Some IKEA shelving units come with a cut out for the skirting.

They will tip as soon as soon as someone climbs on them, but they’re very vulnerable anyway. That your kids haven’t climbed thus far is a ridiculous defence, they’re not that old.

You can buy other kind of fixings though. I’m not sure why you would be precious about making a hole in a kallax to secure it to the wall, they are as cheap as it gets in terms of furniture, hardly solid oak

Have you ever seen one of the 2 x 4 erected and stood on the narrower end? They are wobbly as fuck, especially if you’ve got stuff on them or the floor is slightly uneven. It’s because the bottom is one flat slippery piece of wood rather than legs which you can adjust. It doesn’t need someone climbing it, if you fell on it the wrong way or reached for something on the top they can fall really easily.

We made a 4x4 yesterday and dh had to go and get brackets. If you are having your 4x2 longways I wouldn't fix, upright i would. We didnt fix our 2x2

Have I seen one?! I have had several for years, and the OP clearly states I have another new one.

Mine aren't wobbly at all. Maybe my floors are more even that yours. 🤔

They’re quite wobbly once loaded with stuff, I wouldn’t take the chance. All our tall furniture is secured and my kids are 12 and 14 - I do have a cat that climbs and could easily topple a kallax unit.

We used furniture straps from Amazon. They are like cable ties so then you can adjust for the width of the skirting. We have very wonky walls so this was the only way. Used on a wardrobe not a kallax.

Are people on here buying knock off kallax, the cheap ones for £20? Or putting them together incorrectly? I don't recognise this talk of them being wobbly at all.

We've got several 4 x 2 kallax with the 4 being vertical - they're solid as anything, even on carpet, even when loaded up. It would take some doing to tip one ime.

I might secure them if I had a climbing young child, otherwise I wouldn't.

Well I probably wouldn't, it's actually useful to fix tall furniture. Before kids I had a tall chest of drawers topple over on me, I moved out the way but it damaged some of the drawers and I've had a wardrobe topple before which I caught. Top heavy furniture needs fixing.

We have the big one and another smaller one in another room. Neither are fixed to the wall. They are sturdy as hell. We have two dc and neither have tried scale to it. We would have to remove our skirting boards to fix it to the wall.

We have a huge collection of board games which are very heavy considering. The units aren't touched by the children and they are off limits. They are both in rooms the kids don't really use unless one of us is present. It's probably the only rule the toddler obeys.

If we had lighter things or boxes of toys/books and the kids were using them. I'd 100% fix them to a wall.

You do not need to remove skirting boards to secure tall furniture. A simple bracket or webbed strap does the job/

Yes, I feel very confused about a lot of the responses on this thread.

I totally understand the risk of heavy wardrobes and particularly chest of drawers when the drawers are pulled out. But kallax are quite different, and don't have the same top heavy risk, so I was trying to specifically understand if they are actually a danger.

I don't have a cat but it would have to be a pretty strong one to push over any of the kallax I have!

We have the ikea ones, real kallax @BastardesEverywhereand we still wouldn’t risk a piece of heavy, tall furniture falling on our kids or us. I’ve never thought of it as wobbly but ours are 4x4 so not taller than they are wide however stranger things have happened, for the simplicity of fixing a couple of brackets (that came with them) to the wall I’d rather not risk them toppling for any given reason and killing my toddler or baby that’s due in September.

Erm in your posts you say that you’ve got one already, don’t specify the exact size, and you specifically say it’s fixed to the wall “leaning”. No need to be arsey and yes you might have more even floors than me, but I was trying to be helpful.

If it’s 4 up, I would. There really flimsy

I don’t live with children but I still secure mine.

Since you asked OP I stopped fixing furniture to the wall once my kids were at the age where I felt if it fell on them it would hurt but not potentially kill them - so around 10ish.... then we moved into an old miners cottage where the floors are so wonky nothing stands secure and everything became fixed again! 😉

You probably took GCSE Physics? Take a short time to refresh yourself on the concept of moments and fulcrums. The point at which something of toddler size/mass and height (making it to the second level) and leaning out a little - or falling as the veneered cardboard disintegrates as they're standing on something never designed for that much concentrated upon a toddler foot-sized area of the lip - becomes an item toppling with easily enough mass and pressure across a short space to crush a windpipe or with additional items stored in it to obstruct breathing.

All it would take to prevent this possibility would be two or three bookshelf brackets.

We have a 4x2 Kallax in my son’s room (he’s 3) and it’s 4 tall and 2 wide how we have it and I’d say it definitely needs fixing to the wall. It’s tall and it could easily be pulled/knocked over. A child pulling themselves up on it, leaning on it to reach something in the higher boxes etc. Not to mention it’s basically a ladder for kids to climb with the way it’s structured. It just takes once for them to do something they’ve never done before and it cause an awful accident. Ours came with a fixing kit for the wall and it doesn’t lean at all. It’s against the skirting board too but the bracket allows room for that so the unit isn’t totally flush with the wall (there’s a skirting boards width apart from it) so it doesn’t need to lean to accommodate the skirting. We’ve moved ours as well since we’ve had it. Yes, it left a hole in the wall, but nothing a little filler and painting over it didn’t fix (we kept some of the paint used in my son’s room).