Review the items that your commercial mover prohibits you from shipping to save yourself the hassle of disposing of hazardous materials on moving day. If it’s flammable like gasoline, your moving company will flat-out refuse to transport it. They’re loath to ship pool chemicals and fertilizer for the same reason. It gets hot in the back of the truck, and one spark could ignite it.
Your commercial mover doesn’t want to move anything dangerous. For obvious reasons, commercial movers won’t transport perishable food. They also won’t ship items that aren’t allowed over state lines without inspections, such as plants and produce. Perhaps most importantly, you’re encouraged to take any goods with sentimental value with you or to ship them separately. The three categories of items you can’t relocate on a commercial moving vehicle include:
- Hazardous materials
- Perishable goods
- Personal or sentimental items.
Hazardous Materials: Dispose of Your Flammables Before You Relocate
Many of the items in your garage are not allowed to travel aboard a commercial moving vehicle. Use up your charcoal and lighter fluid, as well as your darkroom and pool chemicals. Pack the kid’s chemistry set in the car, along with the nail polish and extra matches. Don’t bring cleaning solvents, varnishes, paint, or paint thinner. Give those types of things away, dispose of them, or find another way to transport them.
You can’t transport firearms and ammunition aboard a commercial moving vehicle. Pressurized items that can explode, like aerosol cans, propane tanks, scuba tanks, and fire extinguishers, are disallowed. As we’ve discussed, fuel and oil, including kerosene and sterno, can’t travel aboard a commercial truck. Likewise, you can’t move batteries, car batteries, and fireworks commercially. Other prohibited items include:
- Ammonia
- Bleach
- Pesticides
- Weed killer.
Perishable Items: Consume All Your Perishable Food Prior to Moving Day
Plants and produce must be inspected at home before they cross state lines, especially in agriculturally sensitive states like Florida and California. You won’t call in the inspectors; it’s too much effort. Plus, the truck is a hostile place for plants, with stifling heat and little air circulation. There aren’t a lot of other choices for shipping your 10-foot-tall plant you’ve grown for 10 years—you’ll just have to move it yourself.
Likewise, produce must be inspected before it’s allowed across state lines to prevent the transfer of pests and plagues. Commercial movers won’t move it. Anyway, ripened fruits and vegetables spoil quickly in heated, unventilated spaces. Eat your fresh fruit and vegetables, or give them away before you move. Other types of food you aren’t allowed to transport on most commercial moving vans include food that’s:
- Refrigerated
- Frozen
- Non-preserved
- Placed in open containers.
Personal or Sentimental Goods: Move Them in Your Personal Vehicle
Don’t move items of personal or sentimental value on your commercial moving truck. You’ll want to obtain alternative shipping for your sentimental goods rather than dispose of them. If those letters you cherish from a long-lost relative are lost or damaged in the moving vehicle, no amount of insurance will cover their value to you. Take your medical records, your school records, and your address books with you. Keep your family photo albums and home videos separate from your commercial cargo.
Other sentimental items may have financial value too. Don’t send cash, financial documents or your checkbook with the movers. Relocate your furs or jewelry yourself using a safe method. Remember not to pack your airline tickets or your cell phone on the moving truck. Keep your laptop with you. Other items you’ll have to take with you or find separate transportation for include:
- Medicine
- Car titles
- Computer data or backup files
- Keys to anything.
Plan Ahead By Learning Which Items You’re Not Allowed to Move
Sure, you can pack a box full of those non-allowed items and never tell anyone what you’ve done. You’ll be signing a document saying you didn’t do that, but whatever. There’s no recourse for damages to or the disappearance of disallowed items. If your prohibited item starts a fire in the moving truck, it could be costly to all involved. Plan ahead and use all the prohibited items you can. Then, donate or dispose of the items you can’t transport yourself.
Pour out your extra gasoline, eat all your unpackaged and frozen food, and make separate travel arrangements for items you can’t part with. Give away or throw away items your commercial movers won’t touch, including anything flammable or corrosive. Pack your sentimental pieces in your personal vehicle, or give them to someone to store until you can return for them. Maybe even ship some stuff FedEx if you need to. Move forward with confidence after you examine your mover’s prohibited item list.
