Residential moves are emotional. Office relocations are operational — and the measure of success is simple: can your team work on Monday?
I have coordinated weekend moves for professional services firms in Birmingham, retail units shifting across the Midlands, and multi-floor transitions where the lease ended at midnight and the new keys arrived at six in the morning. The ones that worked shared the same preparation habits.
Start With Downtime, Not Boxes
Before you think about lorries, decide how much disruption the business can absorb. Can you close for a day? Do you need a phased move over two weekends? Can departments relocate in waves?
That decision shapes everything — crew size, timing, labelling strategy, and whether IT reconnection happens in-house or with external support.
Label Like You Mean It
Desk 14 is not enough. Desk 14, second floor, west wing, monitor left, pedestal right — that is how you avoid forty workstations melting into chaos.
Colour-coded floor plans help. So does photographing cable setups before anything is unplugged. We offer packing and labelling support for commercial jobs when teams need extra hands, but labelling discipline starts with you.
Communicate Beyond the Person Who Signed the Quote
Facilities managers, IT leads, and building reception at both sites need the same plan. I have lost hours waiting for lift keys that one contact assumed someone else had arranged.
Share loading bay times, parking passes, and a single phone number for decisions on the day. Email threads do not help when a lift breaks down at 7am on a Saturday.
Protect What the Business Runs On
Servers, filing with confidential material, specialist equipment — flag these early. Generic “office furniture” quotes become problems when a heavy server rack or clinical cabinet appears on the inventory list the night before.
Our office relocations crews treat commercial equipment accordingly, but we need to know what we are handling to plan vehicle space, padding, and crew experience.
Walk the New Space Before Moving Day
Measure lifts, confirm floor loading if you are on upper levels, and decide desk placement in advance. Moving a desk twice because nobody agreed the layout costs time you do not have.
A short site visit beats a long argument in an empty office on Sunday afternoon.
The Monday Test
When the move finishes, can staff sit down, log in, find their files, and make a cup of tea? If yes, you planned well. If not, the failure was almost always communication or labelling — not the distance between sites.
Many of the same principles apply to home moves — read my notes on lessons from hundreds of moves for the residential side. For commercial work, we are always happy to walk through your timeline at 6 Days Logistics Group before you commit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far in advance should we plan an office move?
Four to six weeks for most SME offices. Larger or multi-floor moves may need longer, especially if IT migration or fit-out work runs in parallel.
Can you move offices at the weekend?
Yes. Weekend and out-of-hours moves are common so staff can walk in on Monday with desks, chairs, and equipment in place.
How do you protect IT equipment during an office move?
Monitors, PCs, and servers are labelled, padded, and loaded securely. Cables should be bagged and labelled by desk so reconnection is faster at the new site.
Who should be our main contact on moving day?
Nominate one decision-maker on each site — old and new — who can confirm placement, access, and any last-minute changes without a chain of emails.