Your office is moving to a new space—fantastic! Relocation is exciting until you think of all the stuff that has to get packed. Stress comes in various forms at all stages of a move, and losing something only adds to the tension. By following some simple moving tips, you can minimize the risk of losing office equipment and save on replacement costs.
Keep Track of Office Items during a Relocation
Make an inventory of all the items that will go to the new office, including reams of paper, boxes of pens and the plant by the window. For expensive items, like computers, write down the serial numbers.
Use a Reputable Moving Company
Face it, employees don’t want to come into the office during the weekend to pack and haul boxes. Prevent business disruptions and keep employee morale high by hiring a moving company. A good company has a solid track record, good reviews, keeps your office items safe and is customer service-oriented. Tap into your network to get recommendations and moving tips from others who have relocated.
Plan the Move
Moving day should not be a grab-and-go affair because you risk losing items during the process. Work with the moving company so you know how long it will take to relocate the office items, what time the movers will show up and when they leave. Ask the moving company questions about policies that you don’t understand, the items they plan to move first and about the setup arrangements at the new site.
As you plan the move, keep some of the office essentials in a separate container that’s simple to identify, not in a moving box. These essentials can include paper, pens, laptops, office cell phone, chargers, wet wipes, toilet paper, paper towels, first aid supplies, box cutters and permanent markers.
Insure Your Move
Even the best moving companies make mistakes. Moving insurance may be essential to ensuring a smooth relocation process, especially if the items that you are relocating are expensive, like a leather executive chair or $2,000 digital camera. If an item gets lost or damaged (which is still a loss), insurance will help cover the cost of the replacement.
Color Code by Room
The movers won’t know where to put the office equipment in the new location unless you tell them. Trusting that they’ll figure it out for themselves will lead to time wasted as you hunt down what you seek among the piles of boxes.
Before moving day, use stickers with different colors—like the round ones used at garage sales—to communicate where each item goes. For example, a blue sticker on a printer indicates that it goes in the main office area, while a green sticker on the water cooler shows that it goes in the employee lounge. Color-coding items will help the movers pack the boxes better and will make unpacking more efficient.
Label the Boxes Correctly
What’s almost as bad as losing something during a relocation is thinking that you lost it. As the movers pack up the boxes, ask them to label the contents of each box and the location in which it belongs.
Storage Facilities
Sometimes unpacking takes longer than expected. When you suspect or know that this will happen, consider storing non-essential items in a storage facility. Doing so will free up space at the new office, eliminate the stress of looking at unpacked boxes and give you a chance to unpack at your leisure so you can find the perfect place for every item instead of losing it in a “miscellaneous” drawer or closet.
