Office Moves: How to Relocate Without Losing a Workday
The Packed Moving Solutions Team · Movers in Elmwood Park, IL · May 14, 2026 · 8 min read
Nobody measures an office move by how long the truck took. They measure it by whether people could work on Monday. That makes the whole thing a scheduling exercise, and the lifting is the easy half. Most of the small offices, showrooms and light industrial units we move around Elk Grove Village, Wood Dale, Schaumburg, Oak Park and Itasca run the same playbook.
Start with the building, not the boxes
Two buildings now have a say in your date: the one you are leaving and the one you are entering. Both may have a loading dock shared with other tenants, a freight elevator that has to be booked, and hours when moves are not allowed. Ask both, early, because a date that works for you and not for the dock is not a date.
Get these in writing from both buildings:
- Dock access hours and whether the dock is shared with other tenants
- Freight elevator booking, the window length and who holds the key
- Whether after-hours or weekend moves are permitted, and any fee
- What paperwork the building wants from a moving company, and how far ahead
- Where a truck can legally sit if there is no dock
Friday night is the default for a reason
A Friday evening load and a Saturday unload gives you a full day of slack before anyone needs a desk. It also means the crew is not working around your staff, which is faster and safer for both. If your business is closed Sunday, you have effectively bought yourself two days of buffer.
Draw the new floor plan before you pack anything
Every box and every desk needs a destination, and the destination has to exist before move day. Number the rooms or zones in the new space, put a printed plan on the wall at both ends, and label everything with a zone number rather than a person's name. People change desks. Zone 4 does not.
The labeling system that works:
- Number every room or zone in the new space on a printed plan
- Give each person a colored label matched to their zone
- Tape the plan by the door at both addresses so the crew never has to ask
- Label the back of each monitor and dock with the same zone number
- Keep one numbered box per zone for cables, and pack it last
Split the IT work from the moving work
Our crews move monitors, workstations, printers and racked equipment wrapped and strapped. Disconnecting and reconnecting live network and server hardware belongs with your own IT people or your vendor, and the two jobs should not overlap on the same clock. The usual sequence is IT powers down and unplugs, movers move, IT brings it back up.
Internet is the long pole
Furniture can be moved in a night. A circuit at a new address cannot. Order internet the moment the lease is signed, ask for the install date in writing, and build the move date around that answer rather than the other way round. It is the single most common reason an office cannot work on Monday.
Desks, shelving and the rebuild
Desks, workstations, shelving and racking come apart to travel and go back together at the new floor, and that rebuild is what decides whether Monday works. Hardware gets bagged and taped to the piece it came off, which is why putting things back takes less time than taking them apart. If you want specific desks built first, say so before the truck is loaded.
A four-week office move timeline
| When | What happens | Who owns it |
|---|---|---|
| 4 weeks | Confirm dock, elevator and permitted hours at both buildings | You and the building managers |
| 4 weeks | Order internet and get the install date in writing | You and the provider |
| 3 weeks | Walkthrough and quote, crew size agreed | You and the movers |
| 2 weeks | Floor plan numbered, labels distributed to staff | You |
| 1 week | Staff pack personal items, IT stages the shutdown | Staff and IT |
| Move night | Load, transport, unload, rebuild desks and shelving | Movers |
| Next morning | IT brings systems up, snag list walked | IT and you |
When labor only is the better buy
Plenty of small commercial jobs do not need a full-service move. If you already have a van, a rented truck or a container on site, you can book loading and unloading by the hour and keep the driving in house. Ask for both numbers when you get the quote and pick the one that fits the night.
How long does a small office move take?
A ten to twenty person office with the floor plan settled and staff having packed their own desks is usually a single evening to load and a morning to place and rebuild. The variables are the dock, the elevator window and how much of the furniture has to come apart.
Can you move us on a weekend or after hours?
Yes, and most commercial jobs run that way because it costs the business the least. Tell us the window the building allows for dock and elevator access and we will size the crew to finish inside it.
Do you handle IT equipment?
We move monitors, workstations, printers and racked equipment wrapped and strapped for the trip. Disconnecting and reconnecting live network and server hardware should stay with your IT people, and we work alongside them rather than around them.
What should staff do before the move?
Pack their own desk into one labeled box and take valuables home. Everything else, including the desk itself and the shelving, is the crew's job. Give people a deadline that is a day before the move so nothing is still open at 5pm on the night.
Planning an office move?
We will walk both spaces in person or by video, agree a window that works with your building, and quote the crew it needs. Free, and no pressure.
Get a Free Quote TP
About the author
The Packed Moving Solutions Team · Movers in Elmwood Park, IL
Packed Moving Solutions is a moving and moving-labor company based in Elmwood Park, Illinois, owned by David Martinez. Our crews pack, load, unload and move across the Chicago northwest suburbs, and these guides come out of what we run into on the job.
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