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Preparing for a companywide move can be a stressful endeavour for a business of any size, but there are a few important tips and tricks you can implement to help ease some of the pressure. While moving to a new location also comes with its fair share of excitement, there’s also a lot of planning and organization that must go into it to ensure that everything goes smoothly.
The first step is to prepare a comprehensive packing checklist to help you stay organized and ensure that nothing is left behind. Start by creating separate categories for each type of item and take a full inventory of everything in the office. Certain pieces of office equipment should be placed together on your list to help keep you organized and make sure you’re accounting for everything.
Office furniture like desks, chairs, bookshelves, and filing cabinets are arguably the most difficult items to pack, store away, and transport because they need to be dismantled and then carefully organized. Although it’s highly unlikely, try to see if you still have their original packaging and assembly instruction manuals because this will make it a lot easier to pack and reassemble these items when the time comes. If you don’t then create an efficient organizational system that’ll help you keep track of all of the individual pieces and their hardware.
Before dismantling large pieces of information, it helps to take a picture of them from different angles so that you can recall what the finished product is supposed to look like during the assembling process. Use coloured tape to numerically mark each piece so you can remember the order in which to assemble them and keep the small pieces of hardware like nuts, bolts, and screws in separate containers or baggies so they don’t get lost along the way.
Depending on how much office furniture you have and how often you use each piece, you might want to wait until a day or two before the moving day to start packing. If you plan on continuing your business operations right up until the day before the move, then it might be wise to keep everything intact until then and then spend a few hours at the end of the workday taking everything apart.
Even better, you might want to consider hiring a professional office relocation service in your area to take care of this task for you. At least it’s one less thing to worry about when preparing for a major commercial move.
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One of the worst moving mistakes you can make is underestimating how challenging it is to disassemble, pack away, and transport your company’s IT infrastructure. It’s so much more complex than simply unplugging laptops, desktop computers, and communications devices. You also have to keep track of which wires connect to which devices, so make sure to label everything accordingly to avoid confusion when it comes time to unpack everything.
Computers, printers, photocopy machines, and fax machines should all be carefully packed and transported by professional movers like the ones who work for SFI Group Limited. Fragile items like IT equipment require the utmost care during the packing and transporting process. Professional movers will guarantee that you have all of the necessary packing equipment including industrial tape, heavy-duty boxes, and plenty of strong bubble wrap to double and triple wrap your office equipment and prevent costly damages.
Here’s a list of IT equipment you should pack:
Without proper planning and project management in place during your office move, your IT relocation will be a logistical nightmare. As mentioned, the key to executing a well-organized, efficient, and hassle-free corporate move is to label literally everything. This may seem time-consuming and like a lot of work—because it is—but it’ll be well worth the effort when the time comes to unpack all of your equipment and set it up at your new office.
A crucial piece of advice when it comes to packing away your IT equipment is that you should make sure to back up all of your important documents and files on an external hard drive, the Cloud, or an online storage service like Google Drive or Dropbox. That way, you can have peace of mind knowing that all your important business documents are safely stored and accessible whenever you need them.
As the saying goes, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. That’s why many office spaces are adorned with fun, quirky, modern, and sometimes colourful decorative pieces to add a little bit of personality and spunk.
A lot of employers also allow their employees to decorate their desks with personal items like family photos, birthday cards, their kids’ artwork, and other homey items. While miscellaneous items around the office should be packed together, you should allow your employees to pack up personal items on their desks.
Make sure all artwork, posters, and picture frames are carefully wrapped or rolled up and packed in the same boxes to keep them separate from the more important work-related items. As always, label these boxes and provide your employees with boxes to pack up their personal items. Since employees typically don’t have a lot to pack, they can easily just bring their personal items when they start working at the new office.
SFI Group Limited has been one of the leading project management companies for office moves in Toronto for over 30 years. In that time, we’ve successfully expanded our business across the entire GTA and have helped countless companies relocate their businesses. Our services include creating an online inventory, providing temporary storage options, custom architectural design and installation, commercial and retail deliveries, environmentally responsible furniture disposal and repurposing, IT relocation, and crating. Contact us today to learn more!
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