What movers will not move, and what to do with it instead
The hard no, the soft no, the things you carry yourself, and where the propane tank goes instead.
Movers will not carry anything that can leak, ignite or explode in a closed truck: propane tanks, gasoline, paint, aerosols, pool chemicals, ammunition and most cleaning products. Most also decline perishable food, live plants and animals, and anything irreplaceable such as passports, cash and jewelry, which should travel with you. Nearly everything else is a question of planning.
The hard no: anything that can start a fire in the truck
A moving truck is a sealed steel box that sits in the sun, bounces over the Northway and has no ventilation. Anything that can leak or ignite is a hazard to the crew and to everything else in the load, and no reputable company will take it. The list is longer than most people expect.
- Propane tanks, including the one on the grill and the small ones for a camp stove
- Gasoline, kerosene, lighter fluid, and any tool with fuel still in it
- Paint, thinner, stain and varnish
- Aerosol cans of anything
- Pool and hot tub chemicals, fertilizer, pesticides
- Ammunition, fireworks and flares
- Bleach, ammonia and most cleaning products in liquid form
- Car batteries and loose lithium batteries
- Fire extinguishers, oxygen tanks and scuba tanks
The soft no: things that do not survive the trip
Then there is the list of things we can carry and would rather not, because they arrive in worse shape than they left. Perishable food, anything from the fridge or freezer, opened bottles of anything. Houseplants, which in a Capital Region winter die in the truck and in summer cook in it. Candles, which in July become one candle.
Most of it is solved by a cooler and the back seat of a car. The plants ride with you, wrapped in winter. The freezer gets run down over the last two weeks instead of transported.
The things you should not hand to anyone
Some things are not dangerous and are not fragile, and they still should not go on the truck, because if they went missing no amount of coverage would replace them. Passports and birth certificates, the deed and the lease, cash, jewelry, medication, spare keys, the folder with the move's paperwork in it, hard drives, and the box of photographs. Pack them into one bag that travels in your car and stays in your sight. Tell the crew which bag it is, so nobody helpfully loads it.
Where it goes in Albany County instead
The grill's propane tank goes back to any hardware store or grocery store that runs a tank exchange, and you buy a fresh one at the other end. Fuel in the mower and the snowblower gets run dry a week before, which is a job that takes an afternoon and cannot be done on the morning.
Paint and chemicals are the awkward ones. A can of latex paint that is left open with the lid off will dry out and can then usually go in the regular trash; oil-based paint, stain and anything with a warning label cannot. Albany County runs household hazardous waste collection days for exactly that, and the county's website lists the next date and what it accepts. Start early, because the dates are not weekly.
Cleaning products and the half-used bottles under the sink are best given to a neighbor or used up. If there is more than a bag of it, it is a sign of how long it has been under that sink.
The gray area, which is most of the interesting stuff
Pianos, gun safes, hot tubs, aquariums, riding mowers, motorcycles, a workshop's worth of machinery. None of these is on the no list. All of them need to be mentioned when you book, because the answer is planning rather than refusal: the right equipment, the right number of hands, sometimes a second vehicle, and in the case of an aquarium, a conversation about the fish. The item that goes wrong is the one nobody mentioned, discovered in the basement at ten in the morning.
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Common questions
What movers will not move, and what to do with it instead: the short answers
No. Take the tank to a store with a tank exchange before the move and get a new one at the other end. The same goes for gasoline in tools, which should be run dry beforehand.
Most will decline, and we advise against it. A truck is too cold in a Capital Region winter and too hot in summer for a plant to survive. They travel best in a car, wrapped in cold weather.
No. Dried-out latex paint can usually go in the regular trash; oil-based paint and anything with a hazard label goes to an Albany County household hazardous waste collection day.
Documents, cash, jewelry, medication, keys, hard drives and the paperwork for the move. Put them in one bag that stays in your car, and tell the crew which bag it is.
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