Shelves on the wall: good idea or toddler crack?

[fanjobiscuits]

We've just moved into newbuild house and on the verge of getting
shelves fitted in living room. (Kallax from Ikea...) However, DC is
just past 12 months and getting into climbing and clambering. So we're
wondering: would the shelves just become a huge (and dangerous)
climbing frame that we'd be forever removing DC from? So should we
just not bother with shelves and stick the books etc in the loft for a
few years?
Any advice/experience on this much appreciated.

could you not start them above your toddler's reach?

Good thought but we need floor to ceiling to fit in all our books etc. Toddler also rather tall and ceilings not the highest...

We have lots of bookshelves and have had lots of toddlers in the house. Any free standing tall ones need to be tethered to the wall (a lot of systems include brackets for this) as there can be nasty accidents. Built in ones or individual shelves fitted to walls aren't a problem at all, just accept for a period of about 7 or 8 months each DC will delight on emptying everything off them so think carefully about what you put on them. Once they move onto bigger and better things they move on from emptying the same old stuff again and again.

No reason to keep your stuff in the loft though!

I have wide shelves fitted into each alcove in both reception rooms and have no toddler mountaineers to date. They are quite keen on emptying the bottom shelves however. I would imagine if you are buying free-standing shelves you might want to attach them to the wall for safety's sake, however, just to echo previous posters.

Thanks all. We are going to go with the shelves but with toys on the reachable shelves, books above. Will definitely get them firmly attached to the wall!