OP here - great ideas ladies. Thank you!

I have a yoga mat and it works well.

There's a safety strap attached to the pad that supposed to be attached to the dresser/changing table to prevent this. We screwed this strap into the back of the dresser.

The pad we bought had little tabs that hung down on one side, and two tiny screws so that we would fasten it to the back of the dresser. It's a basic contoured changing pad that we bought at BuyBuy Baby or Babies R Us (I can't remember which).

3M command strips. Put them underneath the pad in the middle so you can still change the covers.

Ikea makes a changing table "shelf" for about $30. It's really heavy! We just put it on top of the dresser and put the pad inside and voila! Safe, sturdy, and doesn't ruin the dresser top. You will need to buy the $5 ikea changing pads though, the US ones are too big.

We attached those stick-on round no-skid pads that you'd use to keep a glass tabletop from sliding around. Worked well, but had to replace a few times. But at $1.50 it was no big deal.

Anonymous wrote:What about that slightly sticky/tacky stuff that is used under rugs to keep them from slipping on hardwood floors? You can buy it at home depot. They sell it for runners, so you should be able to get a smallish piece that you can cut down to size.

+1. This is what we're using and seems to be working well. I'm not sure where we got it, but it was a large sheet that we cut down.

What about that slightly sticky/tacky stuff that is used under rugs to keep them from slipping on hardwood floors? You can buy it at home depot. They sell it for runners, so you should be able to get a smallish piece that you can cut down to size.

I'm planning to put a changing pad on top of the dresser. I did this with my first and it worked pretty well although the pad did slide around a lot which was pretty annoying. Does anyone have a solution for keeping the pad in place a bit better? I know there are those boxes that come with some dressers but 1) I don't have one and 2) It seems silly to spend $100+ on this.