Drywall – No screws on drywall near top plate

There are several kinds of drywall anchors and they each have their own weight rating. Some work by drilling a small hole and tapping in a plastic sleeve and others work by drilling a bigger hole and screwing a plastic sleeve and there are others where you drill a hole and the metal butterfly expands behind the drywall know as molly bolts (thanks comments!). Recently I saw anchors where you drill a 1 inch hole in the drywall and this big contraption grips the inside of the drywall (wish I could remember the name). Anyway, each of the big drywall anchors could hold over 50 pounds!

The positive response got me to go dig for those contraptions. Turns out they are made by Moen and they're called SecureMount. I have the Moen SMA3000 and they really are just a bigger version of toggle bolts (spring loaded metal wings that fold and have a long machine screw).

I also found this useful link that has pictures and describes all the types mentioned (except the SecureMount of course . . . those are new and very much a niche product).

Go for 3/4" plus the thickness of the drywall. So for standard half inch, the 1 1/4" should be fine. When we double up the drywall on a fireproof ceiling, we switch to the 2"+ screws for the second layer.

You can go for longer if you have some difficult joists to hit. There's no real downside to longer screws other than more work on the drill and more costs.