What cannot travel in an international move (and turns up anyway)
Flammables, pressurised items, food, plants with soil and each country's own list. What stays behind, why, and what happens when it shows up inside a box at the port.
Every international move has a list of things that cannot go in the container. This is not red tape: most of it is maritime safety, and a single breach can hold the whole container, with several families’ belongings inside if it travels consolidated.
What never travels
Flammables and pressurised items. Paint, solvents, petrol, methylated spirits, aerosols of any kind, lighters, gas cylinders (full or empty) and fire extinguishers. A container crossing the tropics reaches high temperatures for weeks, and an aerosol at that temperature is exactly what it sounds like.
Explosives and ammunition. Including fireworks and hunting cartridges. No exceptions, and no permit that works inside a household move.
Perishable food. Nothing that rots. And be careful with the non-perishable: many countries ban meat, dairy and seeds even when sealed.
Plants with soil. Soil carries pests and is among the most strictly controlled items. Some destinations will not even accept used pots, empty or not, because of what might be stuck to them.
Controlled substances. Including medication in quantities beyond reasonable personal use, even on prescription.
What can travel but should not
This is the list that actually causes trouble, because nobody bans it outright and it still ends up inside a box:
- Cash, jewellery and precious metals. No moving policy covers them. They travel with you.
- Passports, deeds, titles, certificates. If the container runs a month late, those papers are needed sooner.
- Hard drives holding the only copy of something. Make the backup before packing.
- Medication in use. What you take daily goes in hand luggage, not on the ship.
We say it on every move and it is still the thing that most often turns up inside a box. Usually because somebody put it there “so it would not get lost” on packing day.
The lists change with the destination
On top of the universal items, each country adds its own, and not always intuitively. Some destinations restrict ivory and furs even when inherited, others ask for a phytosanitary certificate for solid wood furniture, and others look hard at any antique in case it counts as heritage.
That is why the destination list is handed over before packing, not on loading day. Finding out at your front door that three boxes cannot leave, with the crew standing there, is expensive and avoidable.
What happens if something slips through
It depends on what it is and where it appears. Best case, customs removes it and the rest continues. Worst case, the container is held while it is resolved, and port storage is billed to the owner of the cargo: it is counted in days and it is not cheap.
If the cargo travels consolidated, the delay hits the other shipments in the container too. It is one of the reasons the inventory is built piece by piece: it serves customs, it serves the insurance, and it stops anyone packing an aerosol without noticing.
The easy way not to get this wrong
Clear out what you already know will not travel before packing starts. The laundry room, the tool shed and the cupboard under the sink hold nearly everything prohibited in a normal house. Half an hour there saves the whole problem.