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Our expert for this review is Janice N., who has devoted 20 years to checking the quality of dresser drawers. She advises shoppers to consider the size of your room or closet, how much storage they will need and the overall quality of the piece.
The Cleaning InstituteNo room is complete without a dresser to store your ever-growing wardrobe. The three drawers below are the best models to house your clothes.
To help you better understand how we made the choices for our Top Pick, Honorable Mention, and Green Pick categories, we will take a couple of moments to break down our three testing categories. We will explain our means by which we applied them to help us determine our final scores for each category.
Power: For this particular category, we defined power as how many scoops it took of the powder or liquid baby laundry detergent to successfully clean the baby’s clothes in one standard load sitting. If it took multiple usages to get the clothes to a reasonably clean level, then we rated more lowly in this category.
It should also be noted that we weighed this category more heavily than our other two when coming up with our scoring determinations, which is not something we always do. It was deemed appropriate in this particular instance due to the fact that babies often do significant damage to their clothes, so if a parent was going to use a lot of detergent to get the clean they needed, we felt that was important to note at the outset.
Application: We decided to score application based primarily on how easy it was to actually load the baby laundry detergent into the laundry machine. We also scored it on how simple the instructions on the packaging were to use, and if it was liquid based, we noted whether there was any splash back during the time we put it in the washing machine. If the product provided any sort of significant inconvenience during the time in which we tried to use it, the product was scored lower in this particular category.
Odor: With regards to this category, we simply noted whether the product had an unpleasant or overpowering odor of any kind, which is not typical of any kind of laundry detergent, but especially baby laundry detergent. If, for some reason, there was a negative or particularly pungent odor, we lowered the score that the product received in this category during our evaluation.
This dresser comes with smooth, safety-enhanced metal glides, is made from durable wood and comes with six drawers for lots of storage space.
Most notable upside: This dresser is easy to assemble straight out of the box and very durable.
Biggest downsides: Dresser may have a slight odor.
Featuring sides made of authentic lacquered wood, this dresser combines aesthetic appeal with excellent function.
Most notable upside: The assembly process is easy with simple to follow instructions and is a great quality once built.
Biggest downsides: There isn’t a lot of space within the individual drawers.
This sleek and modern option is a great space saver and comes with four drawers designed for flexible use.
Most notable upside: The compact size makes it ideal for small spaces. If you need more storage, you can just pair two of these dressers together in one area.
Biggest downsides: It carries a strange tobacco smell that many of our testers found deterring.
How do you tell a chest from a dresser? A chest is a series of drawers in a single piece of furniture while a dresser is a chest with a mirror up top. However, boh terms are commonly used interchangeably, so don’t get confused if your search on Amazon comes up with similar-looking furniture.
Searching for the best dresser for you is possible by refining your search with a few key points to consider.
Space
How much floor area and height can your space accommodate? Measure all dimensions available to make sure that your furniture fits in the space you chose. Consider also how you want to orient nearby furniture and the width of the entryway. It is an easy mistake to allot space and not consider how the item is going to enter the house if it is pre-assembled.
Assembly
In contrast to pre-assembled furniture, furniture that comes in several pieces can prove to be difficult especially if a part is missing, or worse, you complete the assembly only to have it come apart shortly thereafter. Make sure to read reviews to see how the assembly went for others.
Purpose
What do you intend to put in your dresser? Who will use it? A kid’s dresser will be notably different from a lady’s dresser. For one, what will be stored in it will also be different. There are lingerie dressers meant for small items. Make-up dressers are also popular today. Their design is quite distinct from other dressers, for there are smaller but several drawers to segregate makeup items. Toy dressers for kids are designed accordingly. The point is, identify individual needs to make sure that the chest you pick will be useful.
Material
Particle-board drawers are cheap but can still look classy. These are great for temporary use if you see yourself investing in a good piece in the future. Plastic is the perfect option for dormers, undergrads, and anyone who just moved out and is on a low budget. Fabric drawers are not necessarily cheap in price or look. Some of them can fit in a rustic home interior. The advantage of using fabric drawers is their lightness and portability since each drawer can be folded. Wood, the last but not least, is the investment piece. Wood is durable so it can last and carry heavy weight. The only drawback is its price; it’s more expensive than the other materials.
Handles
Choosing handles may not be of the highest priority but if you value your convenience, then try each of these in the store to test them yourself. Handle varieties include recessed pulls, pull bars, knobs, and bin pulls. Also, you can skip handles and pick push-to-open drawers. Opening and closing drawers has never been so satisfying until this mechanism! The only drawback is it might not work well with heavy drawers and the sliding mechanism should be impeccable to maximize this feature.
Sliding Mechanism
There are three types to choose from: self-closing under-mount slides, side-mounted ball bearings, and wooden slides. The most brilliant of the three mechanisms is the self-closing under-mount slide because these are silent, almost invisible, and smooth. The next best is the side-mounted slides which are subpar to all the characteristics of under-mount slides apart from occupying space from the width of the drawer and being completely visible. Nonetheless, they are easy to install and disengage. The most primitive type is the wooden slide. It set the stage for the other two to come into place. Otherwise, these are not the best sliding mechanisms as they cannot be fully extended, create noise, and can expand with humidity, causing difficulty to open and close.
Extras
The next features can either be built in or added after purchase. Mirrors and lighting are entirely optional. Mirrors are usually built in but in any case, if that it is not available in the model you are eyeing, you can always customize it to your liking. Lighting is not commonly a feature of chests and dressers but can be bought separately and installed easily. Motion sensor lighting can work best in illuminating your drawers. Changing tables can be built onto dressers. These are handy because they hold everything you need in easy reach. It will keep everything organized and convenient in contrast to having a separate changing table and kid’s dresser.
Price
While good chests and dressers can cost from below $100 to $1000, it is imperative that you decide which fits your budget. Anything below $100 will probably be of the temporary variety. A decent dresser with the bare minimum benefits will cost around $200-$600 and will last you beyond the 10-year mark. An investment piece, on the higher end, will cost anything above $600 with reasonable extras and built-in features.
![Janice N.](/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ben-murray.jpg")