Office Moving Checklist 2024: 8 Things You Should Remember

Many office guides only tell you which office equipment to get for your office or ideas of how to decorate it but not how to successfully move to another office. People often think this process is like the one you go through when you design a new office from scratch, and that couldn’t be further from reality. 

If you carelessly move out to another office, you can lose a lot of money in the process. Apart from that, things are different when moving out as a manager and moving out as an employee of the company.  

No one needs to go through this process by themselves, so we are here to help you make an office moving checklist for your new workspace! Feel free to try any of the things in the list below and add other tips if you think they can help you! Let’s learn more about this office moving guide with us!

When Planning on Moving Out

1. Form a Planning Team

The first step most people see when reading an office moving guide is setting a budget for it, but we have it as the second step in this office relocation checklist. The reason for that is you need to assemble a planning team first.  

It’s too difficult for anyone to plan a whole office moving out process all by themselves, and it can cause things to go wrong. You don’t need to get all the company involved, but there’s no harm in delegating some of your tasks and forming a team with people you trust.  

Doing that takes a lot off your plate and gives you a different point of view when planning the process. It’s a good thing to have a team that comes from your employees or co-workers since they can help you coordinate the other workers when the time comes.  

2. Calculate Moving Out Expenses

Moving out is expensive, also the office relocation checklist, and we can all agree on that. Fortunately, you can reduce the cost of moving out by planning everything on time and making financially wise decisions. 

You can’t start hiring moving companies or packing up your things if you don’t know if you can afford to move out yet. Firstly, review your current lease and see if you are in debt. Many people get themselves in an ordeal because they forgot to pay for property damage or moving out fees. 

If you have already taken care of that, you can start looking for moving company quotes. Don’t expect moving-out services to be inexpensive, and the price of those services increases if it’s a top-notch company. However, most of them offer different plans for people on a budget, so there are several budget-friendly alternatives available for you.  

Moving out companies often give people additional benefits that could make the process easier for them. Nonetheless, you don’t always need those extra benefits, and not taking them could save you some money at the end of the day. Therefore, analyze what you need and only pay for that. 

One of those benefits in the office relocation checklist is moving coverage to protect furniture you can’t allow getting a scratch in the moving out process. That includes studying the modern office furniture and equipment you want to take with you and if you want to get new office items.  

3. Hire a Moving Company

You can’t make a business moving checklist without hiring a moving company being one of the steps there. This is one of the most important things to do since you are going to toe-on-toe work with the moving company to make the process the smoothest it can be. 

If you don’t hire a moving business you like or trust, or if you can’t coordinate your efforts correctly, you can end up losing more money than what you expected to invest in the first place. However, affordability is also something to consider before hiring any company. 

Once you get to a moving company you feel comfortable with, speak with its workers and get to an agreement on how you want the moving process to be. It’s crucial to tell the team what you want to avoid and your expectations since that helps the business workers stay on the same page as you.  

4. Set a Date and Notify Your Employees

One of the things in the office relocation checklist you have to discuss with the moving company is the moving date. It’s best if the moving date is as late as possible, and you could even wait several months for it.  

The reason for that is you need to prepare many things before getting to the moving day, and saving a date that is too close to this month or the next one could make you rush things out more than you should.  

After saving a moving date you and the moving company agree on, you must notify that date to all your employees and co-workers, as well as the place you are moving out to. You can’t check if everyone’s okay with the decision you made or the date you went for, but talking things out with them can help you make the process easier for them. 

This is when having a planning team building a business moving checklist can come helpful for you. Some managers ask someone in their planning team to see if someone has a problem with the date. Don’t forget to tell your current landlord you are going to move out and the moving out date. You can’t leave your current office if you haven’t terminated your lease.  

If your relocation affects other people such as affiliates, business partners, or customers, you also need to tell them you are moving out. As for customers, you can do it via social media.  

Months Before Moving Out

1. Make Sure Your New Office Is Ready to Welcome You

Things in the office relocation checklist start to get more difficult some months before the moving date. This is the time to make all the preparations needed to make your new office the best it can be. Make sure it has enough electric outlets for you and your co-workers to plug all the office equipment you need to work comfortably. Once you’ve done that, you need to take care of lightning and air conditioners for all rooms in the office.  

You don’t have to worry about that if the office you are moving out to already has all that. However, make sure the place has water and internet service. Electricity also needs to be billed to your new office address, and not updating it could cause you tax issues in the future.  

What some people do is send testers to work there for a while before everyone in the company goes there. Testers can only go there if the moving out process is complete, so think about that once you’re done moving out.  

2. Get Moving Supplies on Time

We don’t mean office furniture in the office relocation checklist yet, but you need to get all the moving supplies you can before it’s too late.  

When we say office supplies, we mean boxes, labels, folders, and anything you need to move all your things with no problem. What some people do is ask their employees to get boxes and labels for their equipment, but that’s up to you.  

Labeling everything you pack is something you can’t forget doing, and several workers fall for this mistake. Most people think they are going to remember what’s in each box or that they can check it later, which leads to losing office products, supplies, and important documents. 

Moving supplies aren’t that expensive, and that’s not the main expense people struggle with, so don’t hesitate to get everything you need to pack your office equipment. Some moving companies offer supplies as part of the service, but that can cost you more money than it would if you didn’t ask for that. 

3. Don’t Forget About Office Furniture in Office Moving Checklist

Office furniture is often not easy to move out since you have to move every standing desk and office chair in your previous workstation, and things worsen if you work with a lot of people. However, moving companies make that process way easier for you.  

When the time of discussing office furniture comes, you have to choose between staying with the one you already have or getting new bulk office furniture. We recommend you only go for this if you could take significant benefits from the new products you buy. This applies when buying ergonomic products.  

People used to traditional or standard office items in the business moving checklist don’t understand how helpful getting ergonomic products can be. Therefore, moving out and looking for better working opportunities is the perfect chance for your company to try them. Nonetheless, ergonomic items are often more expensive than average ones, so you need to be prepared for that.  

You don’t need to completely change the items in the office moving checklist you use since you can bulk buy an office chair and go to an office desk wholesale. Those items are the most important ones for officers, and the others are accessories you can try if you have some funds left for them.

Office furniture manufacturers understand how difficult it can be for some workers to pay for new office furniture, so they offer special promotions and deals to them. Autonomous is one of those companies since you can sign up for the Autonomous Employee Purchase Program.  

What is an Employee Purchase Program? Well, it consists of offering office workers an easier way of getting all the products they need to work without going over their budget for them. Nonetheless, you can get more information about this program by visiting the Autonomous website.  

If you don’t want to change all your office items overnight in your office moving checklist, you could try some new ones and see if they are worth it.  

Once You Get to the Moving Day and After It

After months of planning it, you need to be ready to move to your new office in an efficient way. If you did everything correctly, you may not have to worry about things such as labels, bags, or anything regarding how the new place looks.  

Talk to the moving company about how the process goes with them and how you can help them. You don’t need all your co-workers to be there, but make sure your planning team helps you. 

Some moving companies help you unpack everything and organize it, but if the one you hired doesn’t, you need to do it by yourself. You should design a footprint of how you want to organize the rooms in your new office to avoid that from taking a lot of time from you in the future. 

You can’t start working there on day one, and you should take some time to organize everything to avoid breaking one of your office items in a hurry. As we mentioned before, you can ask testers to work there for a week.  

This works if you go for a hybrid workforce in which some of your workers work in the office and others do it from their houses. Doing that helps you prevent any issue coming from the place having a problem or people not adapting to it correctly.  

Conclusion

Moving out is not something you can plan overnight, but if you put all the effort you can into it, working in your new office is going to feel the most rewarding. As long as you work with the moving company you hired and your planning team, you shouldn’t have any issues while undergoing that process.  

Don't be afraid to move out since it’s something that can improve your company’s productivity, and thus, revenue in the long run. With this office moving checklist, nothing may struggle you.