If you have small children, you must have heard about the need to prevent furniture tip-overs. The number of injuries has crept up alarmingly year over year.

Since an update to a voluntary furniture tip-over safety standard for manufacturers, all new casegoods that comply with the new standard also carry warnings about tip over hazards and come with tip over restraints. But you have to be aware that not all pieces will have these tip restraints, and if you buy used furniture or even have have older pieces in your home, they might not be safe for young children.

A very simple antidote exists. Very inexpensive brackets and straps can be the first line of defense in preventing tip overs. Just make sure to install them according to the instructions, and remember that nothing takes the place of good ol' supervision.

• Brackets and Straps for Furniture Tip Over Prevention
• How to Prevent Furniture Tip-Over Injuries

Who looks forward more to Black Friday, retailers or consumers? If you ask around you'll probably see them going head to head.

Retailers tend to pin their hopes on Black Friday, especially when times are tough and the Friday after Thanksgiving continues to be one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

And while consumers continue to be cautious, surveys do show that many are planning to shop this Black Friday. They have postponed buying to wait for just such a time when they can shop at sales to get the best value for their money.

So is there going to be a happy meeting place for both sides? Will retailers offer good enough deals, and will consumers reward that by showing up to shop?

And since we're asking questions, is it really true that you get the best deals on Black Friday? I don't think that is necessarily true for everything. By the way, a lot of furniture stores will be clearing out old inventory from this month to the beginning of the new year. So if you are looking to re-decorate, or even to begin decorating without spending huge amounts of money, this might be a good time to look around.

Do you know what curb-mining is? Maybe you've indulged in a little curb-mining of your own. If you have rescued furniture or other objects from the street and given them a second life in your home, you have been curb-mining. And if you are in New York City, your curb-mining may have got a little impetus, courtesy Blu Dot.

Blu Dot's little experiment consisted of dropping off 25 Real Good Chairs around the city. Some of these chairs are GPS enabled and you can follow their progress at Blu Dot's site. You can also follow updates on Twitter.

But it doesn't end here. Blu Dot will follow up with the new owners, who get a chance to discuss their chair related stories in a new documentary to be released in December to celebrate the first anniversary of Blu Dot's SoHo showroom.

It is no secret that technology is now an important part of how we live and function. American Home Furnishings Alliance or AHFA's October 2009 national telephone survey shows that within the next year, one-third of those surveyed expect to purchase a piece of furniture to enhance the function or style of a new piece of home technology.

The most avid technology shoppers belong to the 18-34 year age group, followed by 35-44 year olds who have children living at home. These two consumer age groups are the ones that are most looking to buy furnishings that complement or support their technology.

While office furniture and entertainment centers have been complementing technology for a while, manufacturers have begun making allowances for that in bedroom furniture as well, such as Hooker's Envision series. Another collection offered earlier this year is Copeland's Catalina Collection.