6 Tips For Moving To a New Office
As we write this, our team is in the middle of wrapping up our time in our current office and preparing to move into a new space. And with that change will come exciting new adventures, a new place to create new memories, and daunting moving process.
Moving is always a tall-task, but especially when you’re moving an entire office worth of furniture. But through this unique burden, we’ve learned a thing or two (or six) about what it takes to successfully swap into a new office - and today, we thought we’d share what we’ve learned so that if you’re ever in a similar situation, your move goes as smoothly as possible.
1. Schedule a Half-Day
We hate to be the ones to say it, but unfortunately, there is no “perfect way” to move offices, especially when it comes to timing. If you schedule your move on a work day, you’ll likely be too busy with your job to accomplish all that you want during your move.
Because of all that, we feel the best course of action is to strike the middle ground - scheduling a half day of work and using the other half to pack your belongings and move to the new office. If you play your cards right and use your downtime on the job to focus on packing, you should be able to handle your move in a day without entirely sacrificing workplace productivity.
2. Lose Whatever Furniture You Can
You probably don’t need us to tell you this, but the more furniture you have, the harder it will be to move it all to your new office. And if you’ve spent a lot of time in your current office, you’ve likely accumulated plenty of stuff that, quite frankly, you just don’t need all that much.
Moving to a new office is the perfect opportunity to shed some unnecessary furniture crowding your closets and common spaces and make your moving experience that much easier. And remember, you can always buy replacements for items you throw out and decide you miss, but it’s best to come to that realization before you have to haul those items to your new location.
3. Don’t Forget The Paperwork
Moving to a new office means more than just putting your computers and supplies into boxes and hauling them to a new location. Specifically, there is a lot of paperwork involved in the process, including changing your address, transferring your utilities, setting up your new internet, and double and triple-checking your old and new lease information. Remember to take care of all those details before you move; you want to ensure your new space is ready to use before you get there, not after.
Don’t just change your address privately, either! Make sure to update it on your website, Google Business Profile, and wherever your clients can find it. You don’t want people trying to track you down and driving to the wrong location.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Start Early
The classic mistake every novice mover makes is waiting until the last second to start the process. It’s tempting to delay your move as long as possible, but when you push it off until a few days before you’re meant to be out of your old location, you find out the hard way just how many steps are involved.
Packing all your belongings, filing all your paperwork, and assembling your moving crew means that, come moving day, all you have to worry about is getting all your belongings into your new building. Even at their easiest, moving days are stressful. There’s no need nor benefit to pushing everything off and adding more tasks to the last-second to-do list.
Many large businesses start their moving process six months before they have to leave their old office. But for smaller teams, we recommend planning your move at least a month before your scheduled move-out date, provided you already have a new office.
5. Prepare To Work Remote
No matter how carefully you plan your big move, there’s always the chance your new office won’t be ready to use by your move-in date. Whether it's because your internet or utilities are taking a while to set up or you simply haven’t had time to unpack anything, unplanned roadblocks can always get in the way of a move. So rather than losing days of work because your new office isn’t ready to use, prepare your team for the possibility of working remotely for a few days.
6. Assemble As Many Helping Hands as Possible
Moving is one of the most notorious hassles in the human experience. Nobody likes doing it, but the more people you can recruit to help with the process, the easier (and faster) it is for everyone!
We were given the opportunity to renovate our new office before moving into it and were lucky to have plenty of helping hands inside and outside our team aiding with the job. Don’t be shy about asking for help; you’ll be happy you weren’t!
