The Consumer Product Safety Commission of the United States has established mandatory safety standards for clothing storage units that would be effective from May 25, 2023.
Clothing storage units (CSUs) are freestanding furniture items that are used for storing clothes. These include chests, chests of drawers, door chests, bureaus, dressers, wardrobes, chifforobes, armoires, and drawer chests. CSUs are available in a variety of designs (e.g., vertical or horizontal dressers), sizes (e.g., weights and heights), dimensions, and materials (e.g., wood, plastic, leather, manufactured wood, or fiberboard). Examples of items that may not be considered CSUs include shelving units, office furniture, dining room furniture, laundry hampers, built-in closets, and single-compartment closed rigid boxes (storage chests).
The new rule mandates that CSUs must be strong to bear the weight of clothing. They must be tested for stability, their strength exceed minimum stability requirements, be marked and labeled with safety information, and bear a hang tag providing performance and technical data about the stability of the unit.
