Office relocation tips: moving on an evening or weekend to keep the business open

The most useful office relocation tips are about time, not furniture. For most of the small offices my crew and I move, the real cost of a relocation is not the van. It is a day of lost trading, missed calls and staff sitting around waiting for desks. Moving on an evening or a weekend avoids most of that, as long as the planning is done before we arrive. Our office removals service is built around out of hours moves for exactly this reason.

Why move out of hours

An evening or weekend move means staff finish work on Friday at the old office and start on Monday at the new one. Customers barely notice. Lifts and loading bays in shared buildings are usually free, the roads are quieter, and parking outside is easier, especially in town centres like Luton and St Albans. The trade off is that everything has to be ready in advance, because there is nobody from the business on hand to make decisions at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning unless you plan for it.

Office relocation tips: what must be ready before the crew arrives

• A floor plan of the new office with every desk numbered, stuck to the wall by the door
• Every crate and item labelled with the desk or room number it is going to, not the person's name
• Desks cleared by each member of staff, with personal items packed and taken home
• Building access agreed at both ends, including out of hours entry, lift booking and any alarm codes
• A named decision maker who is on site or on the phone for the whole move

The full timeline sits in our office relocation checklist, which works back from the move date.

IT and the internet

The one thing a removals crew cannot fix on a Saturday is the internet connection. New lines and broadband transfers can take weeks to arrange, so book them first, before you book the van. Ask your IT support to disconnect, label and pack servers, switches and anything with configuration on it, and to be available on the Sunday to reconnect. We move screens, towers and printers carefully, but we should not be the people unplugging your network.

How the move runs

On the evening or first thing on the weekend, the crew protects floors, lifts and door frames at both buildings, then loads in an order that suits the new floor plan, so the last things on are the first things needed. Furniture that has to come apart is dismantled and rebuilt at the other end. Heavy items like safes, large printers or filing cabinets need to be mentioned at the quote stage, not on the day, because they can change the crew size or equipment.

If some items need to wait while the new office is being fitted out, short term storage can bridge the gap.

Keeping staff on side

A move goes more smoothly when staff know what is expected of them. Give everyone a date by which their desk must be cleared, a set number of crates, and clear labels. Ask each person to photograph their cable set up before they unplug anything, so it can be rebuilt the same way. Tell them where the new kitchen, toilets and parking are before Monday, not on it. Small things like that stop the first morning being spent answering questions instead of working.

It also helps to decide early what is not coming. Old furniture, broken chairs and the filing nobody has opened in years should be dealt with before the move, not packed and carried to a new office that has less space.

The first morning

Plan for Monday morning to be a little slow. Have someone in early to check every desk has its power, screen and phone, and keep a short list of anything that needs sorting. Tell your customers and suppliers about the new address a few weeks ahead, and update your Google Business Profile, website footer and email signatures on the day.

For offices across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, including Dunstable and Hemel Hempstead, an out of hours move is usually the least disruptive option. Tell us the size of the office and the dates that work, and we will plan the move around your business rather than the other way round.