We have always cared about the safety of children when it comes to our products by providing wall anchors when needed and building casegoods that exceed the industry standard with up to 14 additional support braces.
When the STURDY Act (Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth Act) was announced and signed into law during December 2022, we started the process of making sure our build methods were updated to match this new standard. The law implemented by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, revised the safety standards for freestanding clothing storage units.
But what is considered a clothing storage unit exactly? Good question! According to the CPSC, it’s a free-standing unit that stands at least 27 inches tall, weighs 30 lbs, and contains at least 3.2 cubic feet of enclosed storage. Examples would include dressers and chests with drawers.
To summarize, STURDY mandates that clothing storage units meet the following criteria during testing according to the CPSC:
- Tests for stability when the unit is placed on carpeting
- Tests for stability with loaded drawers and with multiple drawers open
- Tests that simulate the weight of children up to 60 pounds interacting with the unit
These tests stimulate real world scenarios of how a clothing storage unit would be used, and how a child of up to 72 months would interact with the unit like pulling on drawers in various ways. More can be learned about STURDY here.
After rigorous testing by the production team, we have found little to no changes required across our premium line of clothing storage units to meet these specifications. For our value line, some minor changes were required to be fully compliant with the STURDY Act such as changing the depth and depth guides of some of our products. Due to these changes, there will be a nominal price increase to reflect the additional modifications needed to ensure our furniture meets this new standard which has been implemented immediately.
We take the health and safety of our customers and children seriously. While some companies struggle to meet this new standard, Fireside Lodge Furniture is ready for when the new standards take effect September 1, 2023.