An office move is judged on one thing. Can people work on the first morning in the new place? Nobody remembers how neat the truck was. They remember whether their monitor turned on and whether the internet worked.

That is why office moves are planned backwards from the first working hour, not forwards from packing day.

Six weeks out: pick the person in charge

One person owns the move. Not a committee. They hold the floor plan, the seating list, the vendor contacts and the decision on anything that is not clear. Everything else in this list gets easier once that name exists.

At the same time, get the new floor plan finalised with desk numbers. Every desk, cabinet and meeting room gets a number, and every box will carry that number. Rooms have names for people and numbers for movers.

Four weeks out: internet, phones and access

Telecom is the long pole. Getting a line live in a new office in the UAE can take weeks, so raise it early and get a written installation date. Do the same for door access cards, parking permits and building insurance certificates for both the old and new address.

• Confirm the internet install date in writing
• Order access cards and parking for the new building
• Get NOCs and insurance certificates for both buildings
• Book service lifts at both ends
• Tell clients and update the address on invoices and Google

Two weeks out: crates, labels and a clean out

Plastic crates beat cardboard in an office. They stack, they roll on a trolley and they come back to us afterwards, so nothing is thrown away. Each person gets crates for their desk and a label with their new desk number.

This is also the moment to throw things away. Old servers, dead chairs, files from six years ago and the printer nobody has used since 2020. Moving them costs money and storing them costs more.

The weekend itself

Friday evening the IT team shuts down and labels every machine. Cables go in bags taped to the monitor they belong to. Saturday the crew moves furniture and crates, sets up desks according to the plan and gets machines onto the right desks. Saturday evening IT powers everything on and tests.

Leave a small buffer. Something always needs an extra hour, usually a meeting room screen or a printer nobody remembered.

Monday morning

Have the mover’s supervisor and one IT person on site for the first two hours. Ninety percent of what comes up is a missing cable or a chair on the wrong floor, and both are fixed in minutes if someone is standing there.

Collect the empty crates a few days later, once people have unpacked. Then walk the old office with the landlord, take photos and close it out properly so the deposit comes back.

Keeping the cost sensible

Three things drive an office move price: how much furniture you keep, how far the carry is at each end, and whether the work happens in normal hours or out of hours. Deciding early what you are not taking with you is usually the biggest saving available.

Tell people what is happening

Staff worry about small things during an office move: where they will sit, where they park, and whether their files will disappear. A short email each week for the last month solves most of it. Include the new address, a map, the parking arrangement, the seating plan and the date crates arrive.

Clients need less, but they need it earlier. Update the address on your invoices, your website, your email signature and your Google listing on the same day you move, not a month later. A wrong address on Google sends deliveries and visitors to an empty office for weeks.

What to do with the old furniture

Most offices carry furniture they will not use again. Decide early whether it is sold, donated or disposed of, and get it out of the building before the move rather than paying to transport it twice. Anything you are unsure about can go into storage for a few months, which is cheaper than a bigger office.

Do the same with paper. Shred what you legally can, scan what you need and box the rest properly with a clear index. Ten boxes of unlabelled files always turn into ten boxes nobody opens again.

Questions People Ask