The short answer is that you move after business hours, stage the new space in advance, and put one person in charge of the whole transition from day one. At CG Moving Company, we have coordinated enough Bay Area office relocations to know that the companies who avoid downtime are the ones who plan backward from the Monday morning they need to be open, not forward from the day the lease ends. If your move will touch more than one department, our guide to phased office moves explains how to stagger the schedule so only one team is offline at a time.
How far ahead should you start planning an office move?
Start 60 to 90 days before moving day for most office relocations.
Most office moves fall apart because planning started too late, not because the movers showed up unprepared. For a space under 10,000 square feet, 60 days is usually enough. Larger offices, multi-floor buildings, or moves that involve a new IT buildout need closer to 90 days. Our commercial moving team typically gets the first site walkthrough on the calendar at the 60-day mark, regardless of how small the office is.
In the first few weeks, lock in:
- The moving date and a backup date
- A floor plan for the new space, including furniture placement
- Vendor coordination for phone, internet, and security systems
- A communication plan so employees know what to pack themselves
Once those four pieces are set, the rest of the timeline becomes a checklist rather than a scramble.
What needs to happen the week before the move?
Lock the floor plan, label everything, confirm IT shutdown windows.
The week before is when loose ends turn into delays. We ask clients to finalize labeling so every box, cabinet, and workstation is tagged with its destination room, not just a floor number.
Priorities for that final week:
- Confirm elevator and loading dock reservations at both buildings
- Walk the new space with facilities staff to flag anything unfinished
- Set exact shutdown and reconnect times for servers and phones
- Pack personal items and non-essential supplies first, workstations last
A short building walkthrough on the Wednesday or Thursday before catches problems while there is still time to fix them.
How do you move on a Friday and reopen Monday morning?
Pack after close Friday, finish setup and testing by Sunday night.
A weekend move works when the sequence is tight. Packing and furniture breakdown start the moment the last employee leaves Friday, and loading continues into the evening. Saturday is for transport and placement at the new site, including reassembling desks and modular furniture. Sunday is reserved for IT reconnection, testing phones and network drops, and a final walkthrough with your office manager.
Building in Sunday as a buffer day, rather than planning to finish everything Saturday night, is what actually protects Monday morning. If anything slips, there is still a full day to catch up before employees arrive.
Who should manage the move on your end?
One internal point person, not a committee, coordinating daily.
Office moves run smoother when one person owns the project internally, even if a facilities team supports them. That person is the single point of contact for the moving company, the one who approves the floor plan, and the one who fields employee questions. When decisions get split across several managers, timelines slip because nobody is sure who signed off on what.
At CG Moving Company, we work directly with that point person from the first site walkthrough through the final box being unpacked, which keeps communication fast when something needs to change on short notice.
A workday-free move comes down to starting early, locking the schedule a week out, and treating Sunday as a buffer day rather than a bonus. If you are ready to put a date on the calendar, reach out through our contact page and we will walk the building with you before we quote anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an office move have to happen entirely over one weekend?
An office move doesn’t have to happen entirely over a single weekend, and larger offices often do better spreading the physical move across a Friday evening and a full Saturday rather than compressing everything into one night. The weekend timeline we describe works well for most offices under 10,000 square feet, but bigger spaces or complex IT setups may need an extra day built in. We plan the schedule around the specific office rather than forcing every move into the same two-day window.
What happens to confidential files and documents during an office move?
Confidential files and documents should be boxed and sealed by the employees responsible for them, then labeled for secure handling rather than left out for general packing. We recommend a locked box or cart system for anything sensitive, with those boxes loaded and unloaded under direct supervision rather than mixed into the general inventory. This is worth deciding in the planning phase, not the week of the move.
Can employees access the new office before the official move-in date to set up their own desks?
Whether employees can access the new office early depends on the building’s readiness and the landlord’s access policy, which is worth confirming during the planning phase rather than assuming it’s allowed. When it is possible, this can help employees feel settled faster, though the heavier furniture and IT setup still need to be finished by our crew and the IT team first. This isn’t something we coordinate directly, since it’s a building access question between the client and the landlord.
What happens if a department's furniture doesn't fit the new floor plan once it's delivered?
If furniture doesn’t fit the new floor plan as planned, we work with the on-site point person to find the best available placement rather than leaving items in a hallway or common area. This is part of why we recommend a full walkthrough and finalized floor plan before moving day, since catching a sizing issue in advance is far easier than solving it with furniture already off the truck. A backup placement option for a few pieces is worth discussing ahead of time if the space is tight.
Reach out to CG Moving Company and we’ll start the planning conversation with a site walkthrough.
