An office move is not just a bigger house move. The furniture is heavier, the building has rules about when you can use the lift, and every hour the business is not working costs something. Almost everything that goes wrong on the day was decided weeks earlier — usually by whether somebody remembered to book the loading dock.
We have been moving Melbourne offices since 2014, from two-desk studios above shops in Brunswick to whole tenancies in the northern suburbs. This is the run-through we give businesses when they ask what they should be doing before we turn up.
Six to eight weeks out: take an inventory, then shorten it
Walk the office with a notepad and list every desk, chair, cabinet, screen, server, fridge and pot plant. Then go back through the list and mark what is actually coming. Offices accumulate: broken chairs, a cupboard of obsolete cables, filing nobody has opened since 2019. You pay to move all of it by the hour, so the cheapest thing you can do for your moving budget happens now, not on the day.
Measure the big items as well — boardroom tables and tall cabinets are the things that will not fit in a lift or around a stairwell corner, and it is far better to find that out with a tape measure than with four people and a trolley.
Six weeks out: book the building, not just the truck
This is the step that catches people out, and it is the one worth doing first. You need to sort access at both ends:
- Loading dock and lift bookings. Most managed buildings require both to be booked in advance, and many only release the goods lift in set windows. In the CBD and in the larger Preston and Coburg business parks these slots go quickly.
- Dock height and vehicle limits. Some docks have a height restriction that rules out a 6.5 tonne truck. Ask for the maximum vehicle height before anyone quotes you, because it changes which truck we bring.
- Proof of insurance. Building managers routinely ask for the removalist’s insurance details before they approve a dock booking. We are fully insured, so raise it with us early and it will not hold up your booking.
- Permitted hours. Ask the building manager what hours moves are allowed. If your office is a shopfront or converted terrace rather than a managed building, check with the council instead — a works or parking permit may be needed to hold kerb space for the truck.
Four weeks out: tell the people with long lead times
Several of these take far longer than you would expect, and none of them can be rushed on the day:
- Internet. Connecting a service at a new commercial address is usually the longest lead time in the whole move. Start it now, not after you have the keys.
- Phones. Confirm whether your numbers move with you or need porting.
- Your landlord or agent. Check the notice period in your lease and what make-good condition you are expected to leave the old tenancy in. Make-good often means removing fit-out and patching walls, which is work in itself.
- Mail. Set up an Australia Post redirection and start the list of everyone who needs the new address: bank, accountant, suppliers, insurers.
- Your online listings. Your website footer, Google Business Profile, invoices, email signatures and social profiles all carry the old address. Change them the week you move, not months later.
Three weeks out: decide who is packing
Be clear with yourself about this, because it is the single biggest cause of a move running long. We do not offer a packing service — we move what is ready to be moved. Desks, drawers, shelves and the kitchen need to be emptied into boxes and sealed before we arrive, by your staff or by a packing company you hire separately.
What we can do is sell you the materials. Our shop stocks moving boxes and packing supplies, and ordering a few more boxes than you think you need is cheaper than running out at 4pm the day before.
Give every box a destination, not a description. “Desk 14” or “Kitchen” tells our movers where to put it down. “Misc” means it ends up in a pile in the middle of the new floor and somebody spends Monday morning opening boxes.
Two weeks out: sort the IT plan
Back everything up, and back it up again to somewhere that is not in the building. Then book your IT provider for both ends of the move: they should disconnect and shut down the equipment before we arrive, and reconnect the network once it is in place. We move computers, monitors, printers and servers carefully, with blankets and straps, but network cabling and configuration should be done by the people who built it.
Take a photo of the back of anything with more than three cables in it before it is unplugged. It takes thirty seconds and saves an argument.
One week out: clear out what is not coming
Everything you marked for disposal at the inventory stage needs a plan. Good office furniture can usually be sold or donated. The rest — broken chairs, old partitions, dead monitors, the contents of the storeroom — can go out with our rubbish removal service, and doing it in the week before the move rather than on the day keeps the moving crew focused on the move.
Moving day: what actually happens
Have one person at each address who can make decisions, and give them a floor plan of the new office with the desk numbers on it. That one thing does more for the speed of an office move than anything else.
Our crews bring furniture blankets, trolleys and straps, and we wrap furniture before it goes on the truck. Keep the lift and the path to it clear, keep staff out of the loading route, and let the movers carry things — it is quicker, and it is what the insurance is for.
Keep a box of the things you will need immediately — keys, power boards, the kettle, the first-aid kit — and move it yourself in a car.
What an office move costs
We charge by the hour and we confirm the rate before we start, so there is no surprise at the end. Our rates start at $40 per half hour for a van and man, $55 per half hour for a 4.5 tonne truck and two movers, and $60 per half hour for a 6.5 tonne truck and two movers. Which one suits you depends on how much there is to move and how fast you need it done — for a handful of desks a van and man is often enough, while a full office is usually quicker and cheaper overall with a truck and two movers.
The things that make an office move take longer, in roughly this order: packing that is not finished when we arrive, a lift that has not been booked, long carries from the truck to the door, and stairs. Three of those four are free to fix in advance.
We work 7 days a week, so a Saturday or Sunday move is a practical way to avoid losing a trading day.
The short version
- Inventory everything, then cut it down.
- Book the dock and the lift at both ends before anything else.
- Start the internet connection early — it is the longest lead time.
- Everything must be packed and sealed before we arrive; we do not pack.
- Label boxes with where they are going, not what is in them.
- Have your IT provider disconnect and reconnect; we move the hardware.
- Clear the rubbish the week before, not on the day.
- One decision-maker at each end, with a floor plan.
Getting a quote
If you are planning a move, our office removalists and commercial relocation pages set out what we move and how we work. We also handle furniture removals and interstate moves to New South Wales, the ACT and South Australia.
Tell us the two addresses, the floor levels, the lift situation and roughly how many desks, and we can give you a realistic hourly estimate. Call 0452 490 078, message us on WhatsApp, or request a free quote.