Checklist for moving your office on a short notice

Moving can be a complicated process even for homeowners, let alone business owners. When you are relocating your business or an office, you have to take care of a lot of things, from your inventory to legal matters. It can be even more difficult if you have to move it in a short time. This is why business owners tend to make checklists and stick to a schedule. So, is moving your office on a short notice even possible, and if it is, what do you have to do to pull it off successfully?

Organize your relocation

No relocation can be done without the proper organization and preparation. This is even more true for office relocation. Firstly, you have to take care of your finances. Moving office requires some expenses, and if you don’t organize your relocation well, those expenses can be higher than they need to be.

Make sure to calculate expected moving expenses by keeping n mind that moving companies calculate the cost of the move by weight and distance traveled. Of course, more elements go into that equation, so make sure to know exactly how movers calculate those expenses. Get in touch with a moving representative to check that.

Sometimes gathering packing supplies can take a significant chunk of a moving budget, depending on the situation. All in all, you have to calculate the expected costs of all the services and materials that you are going to use during the move and opportunity costs.

Get in touch with professional movers in time

Even though you’ll be moving your office on a short notice, you have to contact movers in time. Sure, there are moving companies that are always available, but that can be much more expensive to hire than a couple of days in advance. So, if you can, make sure to contact a moving company at least a couple of weeks in advance.

And yes, professionals are the best assistance for office relocation. It is not a good idea to move your office on your own, let alone make your employees do that for you. Make sure to hire professional office movers, as they have all the materials, equipment, and knowledge necessary for your kind of move. 

Gather packing supplies

No move can be done without proper packing supplies. Thankfully gathering packing materials is not that hard. Usually, you can get most of them in the nearest supermarket, and they are not that expensive. Here are some basic packing supplies you need to get:

• Boxes or plastic bins. Make sure to buy sturdy and high-quality boxes, as documents and other office items can get surprisingly heavy. Alternatively, you can buy plastic bins and crates.
• Sticky notes or a marker. You probably have both of those in your office already. You need them to mark what goes in which box. Use them to inform your movers about boxes with fragile items.
• Packing tape is one of the most overlooked packing materials. Every relocation is much easier when containers are secured with packing tape. It also has different uses, depending on the situation.
• The plastic wrap will keep your items safe from random scratches and damages. Just don’t use it on items with a glossy finish. There is a good chance that plastic will melt under the heat of a moving truck, ultimately damaging your items.

For sculptures and furniture, you can use specially made crates. You can either order them online or hire a carpenter to make them for you. Make sure to declutter your office space before you move those kinds of items. Clutter increases the chance of someone tripping and damaging precious artwork.

However, if you don’t want to bother with packing and gathering packing supplies, you can always hire professional packers. They have all the materials necessary for packing, and they will do the job much better than you would.

The storage unit will help a lot

It would be best if you could keep items in a safe facility. This is why storages exist. Companies, businesses, and offices often use storage for items they don’t use often. Also, the storage unit will be of great help in the process of moving, and right after it. You might want to sign a contract with a storage facility for long-term storage. That way you’ll spend far less every month.

If you have sensitive items, like important documents and furniture with a sensitive finish, you should opt for a climate-controlled storage unit as they can easily degrade and get damaged in an environment with fluctuating temperature and humidity. And you surely don’t want to lose those!

Inform your customers and clients about the change

It is very important to inform your customers about your address change. There are many ways to do just that according to tips from moverstoronto.com. For example, you can print that on a certain date you’ll be moving to a different location at a certain date in Toronto.

Make sure to use the correct address especially when moving your office on a short notice. It would be even better if there is a landmark near your new location since not so many people know how to navigate the streets of Toronto by address.

Also, you’ll probably be changing your phone number. Inform your customers and clients about that too. If you are not working with a huge number of clients, it won’t hurt to inform every client directly.

Design and redesign your new office

One of the most exciting parts of a business moving process is redesigning a new office. Now you have all the freedom you want to make what you always wanted from your working space. Just make sure that your design ideas don’t stand in the way of practicality.

If you don’t want to bother with that, or if you need to have a special permit for redesigning an office space, make sure to hire an interior designer to design it for you. Moving your office on a short notice might not leave you with a lot of time to design an office space by yourself.