What Movers Won’t Take: A List of Prohibited & Restricted Items

Every mover in Quebec works from a list of items that can’t legally or safely ride in a moving truck, and most people don’t find out what’s on it until the crew is already at the door. Propane tanks, half-used paint cans, the bottle of pool chlorine in the garage: all common, all things we have to leave behind. Knowing the prohibited and restricted list ahead of time saves you a stressful scramble on moving day, especially if you’re moving on July 1st when there’s no time to spare. Here’s what we can’t load, why, and what to do with it instead.

Why There’s a “No” List in the First Place

The restrictions aren’t arbitrary. A moving truck is a sealed metal box that sits in traffic on Highway 20 or crawls across the Champlain, and it can hit well over 50 degrees inside on a hot summer day or freeze solid in January. Anything flammable, pressurized, or chemically unstable becomes a genuine hazard in those conditions, and a single leaking container can ruin every box around it. There’s also the insurance side. Cargo coverage doesn’t extend to prohibited goods, so if something on the list causes damage, nobody is protected. Transport regulations treat certain materials as dangerous goods requiring specialized handling and licensing that standard movers don’t carry. When we tell you we can’t take something, it’s because loading it would put your belongings, our crew, and your coverage at risk all at once.

Flammables, Fuels, and Anything Under Pressure

This is the biggest category and the one that catches people off guard, because so much of it lives quietly in the garage or under the deck.

• Propane tanks, including the one attached to the barbecue and any spares
• Gasoline, diesel, kerosene, lamp oil, and lighter fluid
• Fuel left in lawn mowers, snowblowers, generators, and trimmers
• Charcoal, lighter fluid, matches, and lighters
• Aerosol cans: spray paint, hairspray, bug spray, WD-40, air fresheners
• Camping fuel canisters and torch cylinders
• Fireworks, ammunition, and flares
• Car batteries and loose lithium batteries

Snowblowers deserve a note of their own around here. Almost every West Island household has one, and almost every one of them still has fuel in the tank come moving day. Run it dry a few days before, or siphon the fuel out and drain the carburetor. The same goes for the mower. We can load the machine happily once the fuel is gone.

Household Chemicals and Corrosives

Cleaning supplies and garage chemicals are the second big group. Individually they seem harmless, but sealed in a hot truck for a few hours they can react, leak, or release fumes.

• Paint, stain, varnish, paint thinner, and turpentine
• Pool chemicals, chlorine tablets, and muriatic acid
• Bleach, ammonia, drain cleaner, and oven cleaner
• Pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer
• Motor oil, antifreeze, brake fluid, and windshield washer fluid
• Fire extinguishers
• Nail polish and nail polish remover

Latex paint is a common question. Even if it isn’t flammable, a partly full can with a loosened lid will happily coat the inside of a box, and it freezes and separates in a cold truck. Most people are better off finishing the touch-ups before the move and dropping the rest at an écocentre.

Perishables, Plants, and Pets

Nothing here is dangerous, but it doesn’t travel well and we can’t be responsible for it. Frozen and refrigerated food doesn’t survive a loading day, and open dry goods attract pests that can spread through a whole truckload. Plan to run the freezer down in the weeks before the move and give away what’s left. Unopened, sealed pantry items are usually fine. Houseplants are a maybe rather than a no. A short local move across Pointe-Claire or Dollard is generally survivable if you carry them in your own car. A plant sitting in an unheated truck in February will not make it, and one baking in July won’t either. Pets always ride with you, never in the truck. Aquariums should be drained down, with the fish transported separately in bagged water.

Valuables, Documents, and Irreplaceables

There’s a third list we describe as restricted rather than prohibited. We can physically carry these items, but we’d rather you didn’t let us. Cash, jewellery, passports, birth certificates, immigration papers, deeds, insurance policies, medications, laptops, external drives, and small heirlooms should all go in a bag that stays with you. It isn’t a question of trust. These items are either impossible to replace or impossible to value if something goes wrong, and a moving day involves dozens of boxes moving through doorways, stairwells, and hallways. Keeping the irreplaceable things in your own hands removes the worry entirely. Our residential moving crews will tell you the same thing on the walkthrough.

Clearing the List Before Moving Day

Give yourself a couple of weeks. Walk the garage, the shed, the basement storage room, and the space under the kitchen sink, and pull everything that matches the categories above into one staging area. That single pass usually turns up more than people expect. Most West Island municipalities run an écocentre or scheduled hazardous waste collection days that accept paint, solvents, batteries, and chemicals free of charge for residents. Propane tanks can go back to most exchange programs or hardware retailers. Partly full paint and unopened cleaning supplies are often welcome at community reuse programs, and neighbours will usually take a working can of driveway sealer off your hands. If you’re moving on July 1st, sort this out well before the end of June. Depots get busy, and the last week of June is not the week to discover you have six cans of stain and nowhere to put them. Winter moves have their own wrinkle: salt, ice melt, and fuel containers tend to be right by the door where they’re easiest to forget. We cover more of these timing questions on our moving FAQ page, and for specialty items like safes, firearms, or hazardous materials, our trusted local partners can point you to the right service.

Talk to Us Before You Start Packing

The simplest way to avoid surprises is to mention anything questionable when we do your estimate. We’ll tell you straight away whether it can go on the truck, and if it can’t, we’ll usually know where it should go instead. You can request a moving estimate whenever you’re ready, and we’ll walk through the whole list with you.