What Movers Will Not Put on the Truck

There is a category of items no moving company will load, regardless of how carefully you pack them or how much you offer to pay. It is called the non-allowables list, it is largely the same at every carrier, and the reasons are federal regulation and physics rather than policy.

The list is short and worth reading before packing day rather than during it. A crew that has to stop and empty a box is a crew being paid to stand still.

Anything that burns, corrodes or explodes

• Propane tanks, including the empty-looking one under the grill
• Gasoline, kerosene, lighter fluid, camp stove fuel
• Paint, paint thinner, solvents, pool chemicals
• Aerosols of every kind, including hairspray and spray paint
• Fireworks, ammunition, matches, charcoal and lighter fluid
• Car batteries, and loose lithium batteries in quantity

A moving trailer sits in the sun and reaches temperatures that would surprise you. Aerosols vent, paint cans split, and a single propane cylinder turns a container of other people's belongings into a serious problem. This is the part of the list nobody negotiates.

Anything alive or perishable

Plants and food are excluded on long hauls, and it catches people out every summer. A shipment may sit loaded for several days; nothing that needs air, water or refrigeration survives that. Several states also inspect at the line and will not admit soil-grown plants at all, which is a quarantine matter rather than a moving one.

Things we will take but ask you not to

This is the more useful half of the list, because it is advice rather than a rule. Passports, birth certificates, deeds, medication, laptops, jewellery, house keys, and the folder of documents for the property you are moving into — all of these can legally go on the truck. Put them in your car anyway.

The reasoning is not about theft. It is that a shipment in transit is genuinely unreachable. If your prescription is in box 40 of 60 and the truck is in another state, nobody can do anything about it for three days. Anything you would need before the delivery window closes should travel with you.

What to do with the excluded items

• Fuel and propane: run them down, give them away, or take them to a household hazardous waste drop-off.
• Paint: most councils and many hardware chains run collection days. Do not pour it away.
• Plants: give the large ones to neighbours; carry the small ones in the footwell.
• Ammunition: transport it yourself, and check the rules of the state you are entering.

Any carrier should hand you the full list with the written estimate. If you get one that has not, ask for it — the list varies slightly between companies and the differences are usually at the edges, around things like petrol-powered garden equipment, which we will take once the tank and the carburettor are dry.