How clean do tools need to be? Hubby wants to bring his with him but I ain't cleaning them and he doesn't think it is necessary. Want to check to see if anyone knew what the policy was. I know shoes need to be spotless (he doesn't believe me on that one either!).

Well, unless he wants a big bill from customs, he had better start believing it!
There are high risk items & these are anything that has been outdoors ie shoes, garden furniture, bikes & tools!
Clean, clean,clean & paint & don't think you can overdo it!
Our shippers suggested Jeyes fluid as it stinks & will tell the customs man you cleaned when he opens the packing. It does stink but we got through without a problem!

Thank you! Hopfully others will continue to respond. Want to drill it into him. They are spotless or left behind.

The trouble is that they will charge you mega bucks to clean or destroy what they don't want to accept!
Seriously worth the pain of a good clean!

My husband brought all his tools over as well as golf equipment etc. Basically tell your husband they are extremely strict to the point that on rare occassions they have even charged to have that actual container cleaned. When I moved here 3 years ago I checked with the shipping company to see if they covered this cost or if it would be us that incurred it should it happen. They go through everything with a fine tooth comb and I recommend sticking to the advice that the shipping company give you about what you can and can't bring over. For e.g. No cordless phones, batteries etc. I often here from other poms that either their container was delayed through customs or incurred charges for cleaning or disposing. We stuck to the rules and our container came though customs really quick compared to some other peoples. Also inform you husband that the cleaner these things are the faster you will get your container and trust me you will be very excited when it arrives

Thanks. Didn't know about not taking batteries with us though. That's a new one. need to get the screw driver our on the toys for our little boy!

I know I didn't know until the shipping company turned up to pack everything up and had to take the batteries out of everything and then when we got our stuff here we had to go and buy a mass of batteries

I Cleaned my tools very well but they did not get checked and there was close to 80kg, 5 toolboxes worth, I also brought over a big box of batterys, they came through ok, I did not realise they were on the no no list.

What about cordless drills/power tools ect, surely you can bring those batteries across

We had packs of brand new batteries in our shipping

I would advise taking them out of equipment, toys etc due to potential leakage when in transit for 2-3 months!

We brought all our woodworking tools, car maint tools, gardening tools, power tools incl. batteries. 20 years of accumulation. We also packed batteries, new ones, not because we bought them thinking they wouldn't be available, but because they were in the drawers in the kitchen!

The only thing they confiscated was a Christmas Wreath because of 'unidentified seed pods' which were, in fact, polystyrene!!!

and allypally who clean did you get it all?!?
what about if it's rusty???

We jet washed the garden tools and painted them with hammerite (badly!)

Vacuumed the woodworking tools to remove the sawdust etc...

The car maint. tools didn't get any attention at all... If they're particularly oily, I'd give them a wipe!

I didn't bring the lawmower though, it'd seen better days!

HTH

We bought all our tools (sorry, hubby's tools) and the giant toolboxes. Everything vaguely rusty was rubbed down and then wiped with WD40. Everything else was given a gentle wash, dry, spray with WD40. Some of his 'special' tools were wrapped in paper before going back in the similarly cleaned boxes. Took him weeks and may have been anal but nothing was unpacked by AQIS so it was worth it.

What tools make it on to the 'special' list ????