Organization and attention to detail are extremely important for such a demanding job. Being a removal company, who also happens to have done an office move and knows the golden rules for a successful office move planning.
We’ve also compiled a comprehensive office move checklist for a no-stress relocation.
If the responsibility for the office move lies on your shoulders, whether you are the business owner, the CEO, the office manager, or a member of staff that was designated to deal with the job, this checklist will help you.
On rough calculations, you should decide on the moving date and ideally have about 6 months to get everything organised.
3-6 Months Before the Moving Day
- Review the lease contract if the current office space is rented. Follow the procedure from the lease, and call for a move-out cleaning service if specified in the contract.
- Inform the landlord about the upcoming move-out in advance, as specified in the lease.
- Delegate a person or a team of people to organise the move.
- Decide on what to do with the current office furnishings, will you take them with you or buy new ones.
- Agree on a moving budget.
- Get quotes from several moving companies.
1 Month Before the Move - Communicate the Move
Who should you inform about the office relocation at least one month before it happens:
- Colleagues, and be ready to answer questions.
- The landlord (better inform them as soon as the moving date is decided on).
- Business partners.
- Business clients.
- The post office and other delivery services providers (e.g., food, bottled water, coffee providers).
- Bank and financial institutions (e.g. insurance companies).
- Utility providers.
- You can add it to your site.
Preparation and Organisation for the Office Move
- Create a plan for the layout of the new office space.
- Make an inventory of the office furnishings and items.
- Decide on what is to be moved and what is to be left/sold/thrown out.
- Order packing materials if staff members will be doing the packing.
- Book a removals company in advance so there are no last-minute surprises.
- Create an internal plan for the move.
- Create a folder for all moving records - documents, invoices, receipts, inventory lists, etc.
- Schedule IT relocation.
- Get in touch with the new building and acquire the security system password and keys.
- Decide on a packing system and inform staff about it.
- Ensure the new location will be ready on time so you can move in quickly with no gap between the two properties.
- Have an IT team back up all digital data.
1 Week Before the Moving Day
- Arrange an end-of-lease cleaning.
- Give out keys/cards/passwords for the new location to staff members.
- Make sure everyone knows the moving day is coming.
- Make sure everyone is working on their tasks.
- Disconnect major appliances - fridge, boiler.
- Start taking the trash and unnecessary items out.
On the Moving Day
- Make sure that everyone follows safety procedures.
- Track the loading onto the vans.
- Before sending the moving vans to the new property, walk through the office and make sure everything has been loaded.
- Leave keys for the old property.
Careful planning is the key to a successful office move. Read tips and tricks for planning an office move, and getting it right the first time. It’s important to plan things so that fewer business days are lost than possible.
The designated teams or people should be diligent, attentive to detail, responsible, and have good communication and organisational skills. Multi-tasking would be a huge plus.
Getting the right people to deal with the organisation will ensure there will be no data loss and less money loss. Leave the heavy lifting to the experienced office movers at Strong Move.
