How To Keep Your Office Moving Organized And Easy

Any move comes with its share of stress, but moving an entire office can at first seem overwhelming. Everything from the need to downsize or increase your space or the end of a lease in your current space can force you into moving. Without a plan, things can quickly go from bad to worse.

Office Relocation: How To Make Moving Your Office Easy

With a proper plan in place, you can take much of the pain out of an office move, getting you and your staff back to work in a timely manner and allowing you to return to full production quickly. Taking a little time to plan for the moving day will help the entire experience move smoothly and minimize any potential surprises.

Office Moving Tips

Office Moving Tips: Six Months Out

1. Evaluate What Needs To Be Moved

Take this time to go over the entirety of your business and office space. The reason you do this so far from move day is to give yourself as well as your employees time to assess the space the office will need to move into. This time can also be used to determine what – if any – furnishing or equipment will not be making the move to the new location. These items can start being moved into storage, sold, or discarded.

2. Inform Your Staff

Inform your staff to begin planning for the move. Allow them plenty of time to prepare for the upcoming changes. In addition – depending on the distance of your move – it’s good to give your employees the new address in advance if they wish to seek out new employment due to distance issues. This is also a great time to appoint a moving manager. The moving manager’s main role is to follow up with employees and make sure the following steps are being accomplished.

3. Research Moving Companies

Begin researching moving companies for your move, call for estimates and get them in writing. Research each of the companies, and look at their reviews to be sure they are good choices. Take your time and pick a licensed, insured, and reliable moving company that fits your needs.

Office Moving Tips: Three Months Out

1. Make To-do Lists

With this step, you will begin to lay out the path to moving day. With a month by month to-do list from three months out until moving day, you can keep yourself on track of any and all tasks that will need to be done before the move. Your 1-month to-do list should be broken down by weeks, as well as a plan of what needs to be done on moving day. Be sure to assign to each employee their responsibility to pack their own desk.

2. Hire Your Moving Company

With your research into movers done, it’s time to look at the top moving companies and pick the one whose estimate best suits your moving plan. Book the move day and ensure that the price you pay is the price you were quoted by the written estimate. If possible, it is a good idea to book your move for a Friday. This allows your employees to get their offices set up and go home for the weekend, knowing they will return on Monday to start work in the comfort of a fresh new office.

3. Inform Your Vendors

Three months out is when you need to begin reaching out to each of your vendors. Update them with your new address changes as well as inform them of any expected downtime that will occur during the move.

Begin changing over your addresses for shipping and billing as well reach out to your internet provider. Changing over the internet and telephone services can sometimes take considerable time, so it’s a good idea to make these arrangements well in advance.

4. Order Updated Documents with New Address

It’s important to get a adequate head start on this aspect of your moving process because you will be surprised how many documents have your address on them. Documents like business cards, envelopes, letterhead, forms, and flyers all contain your address, many of which require special orders. We recommend get an start early on getting these new documents printed seeing as how there will be plenty of other concerns to tackle once you move and the last thing you want is to go months without these after your office move.

Office Moving Tips: One Month Out

1. Begin House Cleaning

Set aside a few days to make your way through the offices and clean house. Now is the time to clear out anything that you do not want or need to take to the new location. Better to toss it in advance then to pay to pack and ship it! Shred any old files and toss out and clean house with the perspective that if it is not needed or will not be used at the new location it needs to go. Have employees empty all filing cabinets and desks so they are easier to transport, making sure to keep important records and anything that can be used in the future.

2. Start Packing

The week of the move is the time to pack up everything that is not a daily essential. The last half of your work day leading up to moving day should be set aside to finish packing up all work areas for when the movers arrive first thing in the morning. Encourage employees to take their personal belongings, such as books and pictures, home before the move day so they don’t get misplaced in the process, resulting in time wasted searching the new office for them.

3. Plan Data and Power Needs Properly

Power and network requirements should be handled before the move, for the most part. Get your IT guys involved. Have them set up all possible power, the internet, and phone lines to minimize work disruption. You can even bring in one desktop computer and a phone to test out data and power needs before you start moving from one office to another.

4. Use The Numbering System

You may want to use a numbering system as you begin laying out your new office. Start with work areas. Instead of writing down each person’s name, assign all of your employees a number. Put labels on each desk, computer CPU, screen, and other tools used day to day. Layout the desks and offices based on the numbers you assigned each person. Each department should have a specific number range (100 to 150 for sales, 200 to 250 for marketing, etc.). Do this for all areas, including communal areas and bathrooms as it will help your packing, moving, and unpacking efforts.

5. Inform Customers

With your new location determined and your moving day confirmed, it is time to inform your customers of your move. Post notices on your websites and send out emails bringing your customer base up to speed. If you have an e-business, be sure to post notifications if there will be any delays in shipping or customer service issues during the move. The more you do to keep your customers in touch with you and up to date the more they will appreciate it.

Office Moving Tips: Move Day

M-Day has finally arrived! Your office is all packed up, belongings have been taken home, and your new office is laid out. However, you still need to actually move, so the work is not done just yet!

1. Have a Company Representative at Each Location

You need to have at least one managing representative at each location to make sure everything goes smoothly. Verify everything that goes into the moving truck is meant to go. On the other end, the second representative will be helping your movers place the desks and furnishing correctly. If your office is huge, you may want to get several more team members involved. Selecting a lead from each department to manage their department set up is a great way to go.

2. Work Each Area One-By-One

Make sure your movers are working from the inside out, and work each area one-by-one. Dedicating all your movers to a single area at a time will make the process a lot quicker, and will leave less room for mistakes.

3. Leave Additional Data and Power Setup for After the Move

The final power and data needs can be finished off and tested once the moving is completed. Your IT team should be ready to take over right after the movers are gone, so make sure you inform them beforehand.

4. Set Up Personalized Desk Labels

A good way of welcoming your employees to your new office is to place personalized labels on each desk. Name and title will do, and you can always throw in the company logo to make it more appealing.

5. Final Checks

Run a final check to test out all lights, outlets, faucets, toilets, doors, surveillance cameras, and other elements of your office. If you have a team member with a keen eye for detail you can bring them in as a consultant as well.

Need Help Moving Your Office?

There you have it, a solid plan to get you started on moving your office quickly and smoothly! With a moving plan in place and a solid team behind you, you’re move will be over before you know it. If you’d like a reliable and efficient business movers to help you plan and make your move, contact On the Go Moving and Storage to assist your moving process.