Almost every move has a small pile that should never go on the truck. Some of it is a regulatory question — a moving vehicle is not allowed to carry it. The rest is a judgement call, and it comes down to one test: if this went missing for three days, what would that cost you?
Sorting that pile takes about twenty minutes if you do it a week out. Done on move-day morning, with a crew waiting, it is the single most common reason a load leaves late.
Why a mover declines certain items
Two different reasons get confused with each other, so it is worth separating them.
Non-allowables are items a moving truck cannot carry — flammables, corrosives, explosives and compressed gases. This is not a company preference. It is a transport safety requirement, and it applies to every legitimate carrier. A crew that shrugs and loads a propane tank is not doing you a favour; they are telling you what else they are casual about.
High-value and irreplaceable items are different. A mover can usually carry them, but standard coverage often will not, and no coverage plan replaces a thing that cannot be replaced. These are the items where the sensible answer is "it rides with you," not "we will be careful."
Ask which list an item falls on. The answers are different and so are the consequences.
Non-allowables: what cannot go on the truck
Empty, drain or dispose of these before move day:
- Fuels and flammables — gasoline, diesel, kerosene, lighter fluid, lamp oil, camp fuel.
- Propane and compressed gas — barbecue tanks, camping canisters, oxygen cylinders, helium.
- Aerosols — spray paint, some cleaners, large volumes of personal-care aerosols.
- Corrosives and pool chemicals — drain cleaner, muriatic acid, chlorine, car batteries.
- Paint, solvents and thinners — including part-used tins in the garage.
- Fireworks, ammunition and matches.
- Fire extinguishers — pressurised, and they belong on the non-allowable list even though they feel like safety equipment.
Two practical notes. Lawn mowers, generators, chainsaws, pressure washers and outboard motors are fine to move, but they must be drained of fuel and oil first — do that a few days ahead so they have time to dry out. And an unopened bottle of household cleaner is generally not the problem; a shelf of half-used solvents in the garage is.
Most municipalities run a hazardous-waste depot that takes these free of charge, and paint often has its own return programme. Look yours up early — depots keep short hours and they are not open on the morning you need them.
Perishables and anything that can spoil
Food is not dangerous, it is just a mistake. Frozen and refrigerated items do not survive a load, a transit and an unload, and open dry goods invite pests into a truck that will carry someone else's home next week.
Run the freezer down over the last fortnight. Defrost the fridge at least twenty-four hours ahead — a fridge moved with water in the pan drips through the whole load. Give away what is left. Anything opened and perishable goes in a cooler in your own vehicle or it goes in the bin.
Houseplants belong in the same category for a different reason. They do poorly in an unheated or unventilated cargo space, they are almost never covered, and on a long-distance route they may cross an agricultural inspection. If a plant matters to you, it rides with you.
Irreplaceables: what should never leave your hands
This is the list that actually causes grief, because nothing here is dangerous — it is just impossible to put right afterwards.
Keep with you:
- Identity and legal documents — passports, birth and marriage certificates, immigration papers, wills, titles, deeds, insurance policies, tax records.
- Financial instruments — chequebooks, bonds, share certificates, safety deposit keys.
- Cash, jewellery, watches, precious metals, coin and stamp collections.
- Prescription medication, especially anything on a daily schedule or requiring refrigeration.
- Keys — house, car, mailbox, storage, office, and the spare set you keep in a drawer.
- Laptops, phones, tablets, external drives and backups. If a device holds the only copy of something, it does not go on a truck.
- Personal irreplaceables — photo albums, letters, a child's comfort item, an urn, medals, family papers. No coverage plan restores these and no crew wants to be the reason one goes missing.
The reliable method is a single box or bag you pack yourself, keep in your own vehicle, and physically move out of the room before the crew arrives. That last step matters more than the packing. An unmarked box left by the door on move-day morning is exactly the box that gets loaded, in good faith, because it looks like everything else.
Some people label it. Others deliberately do not, and simply keep it with them. Either works; leaving it in the flow of the move does not.
The first-night box
Separate from the irreplaceables, pack one box you can find immediately at the other end. It is the difference between a calm first night and an hour of opening cartons at eleven o'clock.
A workable first-night box holds: bedding for each bed, a towel and toiletries per person, a change of clothes, phone chargers, medication for a couple of days, basic tools and a box cutter, toilet paper, hand soap, a kettle or coffee setup, pet food and bowls, and anything a child or an older adult needs to settle. If you have arranged room-order placement at the destination, tell the crew where this box should land — it should be the first thing off, not the last.
Firearms, alcohol and the grey areas
A few categories are neither clearly banned nor clearly fine, and the answer depends on the carrier and the route. Raise them before move day rather than at the truck:
- Firearms and ammunition. Ammunition is a non-allowable. Firearms themselves are subject to storage and transport law and are usually best moved by the owner, secured according to the regulations that apply to them.
- Alcohol. Generally movable, but wine collections are temperature-sensitive and cross-border routes have their own rules.
- Cannabis and prescription controlled substances. Keep these with you.
- Aquariums. The tank moves; the water and the fish do not.
- Safes. Movable with the right equipment, but the contents should not be inside — empty it and carry the contents yourself. See specialty and heavy handling.
Sort it a week out, not on the morning
The practical sequence:
- Ten days out — walk the garage, the shed and the utility cupboard. Set aside everything on the non-allowable list and check your local depot's hours.
- A week out — stop buying groceries you will not eat. Start running down the freezer.
- Three days out — pack the irreplaceables box. Put it in your vehicle or a closed room the crew will not enter, and tell whoever else lives there that it is off limits.
- Two days out — drain fuel from anything with an engine. Defrost the fridge.
- The night before — pack the first-night box last and load it into your own vehicle. Do a final sweep of the medicine cabinet, the safe, the desk drawer and the spot where spare keys live.
Ask before move day, not on it
Every carrier's list has edges. If you are unsure about an item, ask when the scope is being written — not when the crew is standing in your hallway with a dolly. A question answered in advance costs a minute. The same question at 8:00 a.m. on move day costs the elevator booking.
Send us your list of unusual items with the rest of the route detail and we will tell you plainly what rides with the load, what rides with you, and what needs to go somewhere else entirely — in writing, before anything gets packed.