Actually bought four of these for bookcases that I own. Just use a stud finder and look for a stud anywhere behind your bookcase. Center would be best but it doesn't really matter. From the top of your bookcase go down a few inches and mark a spot right in the middle of the stud. This is so the straps can be hidden. Take a washer put it on the screw then add the strap behind it (Velcro facing you) and screw it into the mark you previously made on your wall. Push the bookcase up against the wall and since the velcro was facing you, it will now face downward on top of your bookcase. Remove the backing of the velcro cloth and stick it to the top of your bookcase ensuring that there is little to no play in the strap anchored to your wall. You have now successfully earthquake proofed (or toddler proofed in my case) your bookcase. Rinse and repeat on all of your dressers, bookcases, etc until you are complete.

I personally use a drill bit to pre tap so the screw goes in easier. I also use a corded drill for the drilling and screwing. Installing two straps on a bookcase takes me less than 5 minutes with power tools and that includes finding the studs and making sure there's no electrical there. Putting that long screw into a stud by hand would require some immense hand strength and probably 10 minutes per strap easily. If you're not putting it into a stud and just in sheetrock you might as well not even have these. 20 lb of pulling pressure and you'll blow the sheetrock out and the whole thing will come crashing down. Even with sheetrock anchors it would still be questionable so just put it in the stud. Again doesn't have to be center because the straps are about a foot long and you can adjust where you put the stickers for the velcro.

Better safe than sorry. You won't regret this purchase if you have kids or live in an earthquake prone area or both.

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Works great, just make sure to use a stud finder if your application is through dry wall

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Beware that the sticker portion adheres very securely to furniture. I've purchased these multiple times while remodeling and adding large bookshelves/wardrobes to my house. They work incredibly well. Our floors were uneven in a nook of the house that we wanted to place bookshelves in. The bookshelves are solid wood and very heavy. After messing with the adjustable feet on the bookshelves for hours, we determined it would be foolish to not have straps attached, however level we got them. These straps immediately held the shelves firmly in place. Absolutely no rocking. We really tested by trying to tug the bookshelves forward (while one of us served as a "spotter" in case they fell), and they wouldn't budge. If we had children in the household, I'd put these on everything. The only thing to be wary of, as mentioned, is that the sticker portion is insanely secure. I'm pretty sure if I ever try to remove these, paint and wood/stain will be removed from the surface of my furniture. What I loved about these is that they work for areas where you can't easily reach in with a drill to secure a piece of furniture with screws on one side. We were able to screw the strap to the wall, because we could go in with the drill facing the wall above the bookshelves. But we would have had to remove the bookshelves from the nook if we were going to drill the other side of the strap into the tops of them, because there was not enough space between the top of the bookshelves and the ceiling to fit the drill in that direction. Using the sticky side on the bookshelves prevented us from having to pull the heavy units back out of the nook.

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After the devastating SF Bay Area 1989 earthquake, earthquake-preparedness experts started insisting that tall and/or heavy furniture be attached to wall studs, I did that for all of my furniture meeting that criteria. No pre-packaged strap or cable systems for sale at that time, so I figured out how to make them myself using items I bought at the hardware store. Over the years, I acquired a few more pieces of furniture but put off securing them to wall studs, intending to get to it later. You know, the immediacy of the large catastrophic earthquake faded. The subsequent intermittent smaller earthquakes that did no damage in my house were apparently not enough to motivate me. Sad! However, I found this strap kit on Amazon two weeks ago. It looked so simple and easy to install (compared to the systems I created on my own in 1989) that I no longer could procrastinate by using the excuses I'd used since then. The strap kits arrived in two days; Yay Amazon Prime! The Oak color kit worked well enough for the oak furniture pieces. The Velcro pieces are substantial. They aren't going to be invisible or disappear completely from sight, just because the color is similar to the furniture piece. But, you shouldn't expect that from this design. Convenience and easy installation trumps invisible systems in my world right now. After reading the instructions to ensure that I was installing the straps correctly, it took three minutes, tops, to install. Caveat: three minutes AFTER successfully finding the center of a wall stud. That's sometimes a challenging task even when using a stud finder! (Had to fill an "oops" hole drilled that missed the stud.) I don't intend to move these furniture pieces often, if at all, so the max number of unfastening the Velcro strips doesn't apply to me. Installing Quakehold! 4161 Furniture Straps was so easy, I'm considering replacing my homemade furniture-retention systems with these.

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The strap screws into your wall, ideally at a stud. The part that goes on your furniture attaches with a very strong taped velcro--the velcro being what attaches the wall-attachment to the taped velcro. The tape can be removed with much patience but it cannot be re-taped to the furniture. And they don't sell just that taped velcro piece separately so if you move the furniture you will need to get an entire new box.

That caveat aside, this is the strongest system I've found which doesn't permanently damage or alter your furniture piece!

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I was really happy to find this product, we have used it for my mother’s fridge, she is in a retirement home and we raised her little fridge for her so we used the strap to make sure when she might lean on the door it wouldn’t fall on her, so far so good

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I use this to secure my tall aquarium to the wall. it’s easy to install and gives me piece of mind.

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BUT, it's much more substantial than the tipping straps that come in child-safety kits. It has proper grommets in the straps instead of simply small melted holes. This will hold our cabinet with greater security. Confidently recommended. :)