How to secure furniture in a rental?

[Grooticle]

We’re moving into an unfurnished rental house with two young kids who are both climbers. In our current home the furniture is bolted to the walls so safe even if they try to climb it.

But we can’t bolt to the walls in the rental, so how do we choose furniture that’s safe? Is there any way to secure to the walls without damaging them?

How many children do you have and how old are they?

You could ask the landlord on the basis of sorting out the walls before you move out.

Do you have a lot of furniture that needs bolting on? I’m not sure that we’ve got anything bolted as the wardrobes are mostly fitted and so are the bookshelves.

Yes, speak to the landlord.

The likely answer is that you should either have furniture that won’t need fixing or if you need to fix it, go ahead, but you will be expected to rectify the damage and decorating at the end of the tenancy.

Lots of tenants like to choose houses with built in wardrobes so they avoid this issue. As you get older you do accumulate more stuff and furniture and families often have things like wardrobes, so this can be an ongoing problem. You do need to make them safe for your children clearly, but you will also need to be responsible for the property being returned as it began...and that will cost you, so you do t want to move too often.

I think a Lanlord is unlikely to say you cannot attach the furniture. That would be unreasonable from a safety point of view with tenants who are a family (or anyone come to that) but they would be perfectly entitled and sensible to tell you you will need to rectify the damage at the end....and that’s more than just dabbing dome poly filler in the holes - there will be decorating too.

As your kids get older hopefully it will be fewer pieces which need attaching. Definitely work on teaching them not to climb. Hopefully it’s a short lived phase for most.

Thanks all.

They’re 3 and 5 - they’re not allowed to climb furniture and we keep stopping them, removing screen time etc, but they keep doing it!

There’s no built in furniture at the new house, we’ll need wardrobes, drawers, shelves etc, we’re only staying there for 1 year so was hoping to avoid having to redecorate to fill in holes!

But yes I suppose we’ll have to ask the landlord for permission. It was marketed as a family home so hopefully they’ll be sympathetic.

Was sort of hoping somebody had a magic solution!