The Executive Office Move Checklist

Office moves fail on Monday morning, not moving day. Anyone can shove desks into a truck; the real test is whether your team walks into the new space, plugs in, and works — no missing monitors, no broken network, no lost boxes labelled MISC. Here is the six-week playbook our commercial crews run for professional service firms across the GTA, Ottawa, and Montreal.

Six Weeks Out: The Move Committee

Appoint one internal move lead — usually the office manager or head of operations — plus one point person per department. Their combined job is straightforward: audit every workstation, catalog every asset, and represent their team's needs in the new layout. Give them decision-making authority. Nothing kills an office move faster than a move committee that has to escalate every question to the CEO.

At this stage, also commission a scaled floor plan of the new space with numbered zones. Every workstation, meeting room, kitchen zone, and storage area gets a code (e.g. A1, B3, KIT-2). This grid becomes the language of the entire move — labels on boxes, seating assignments, network port maps — all reference the same coordinates.

Four Weeks Out: IT and Vendor Coordination

Book your telecom and internet cutover for the exact weekend of the move, not a day earlier or later. Coordinate with Bell, Rogers, or your ISP a full month out — installation windows can stretch to six weeks in downtown Toronto. If you're using cloud-hosted systems, verify VPN settings, printer configs, and any hard-wired security setups are documented before anything is unplugged.

• Internet + phone cutover: booked and confirmed with the vendor
• Server backup: fresh full backup taken the day before the move
• Network map: every port, cable, and device labelled and photographed
• Access credentials: alarm codes, keycards, wifi passwords printed and given to move lead
• Vendor notifications: bank, insurance, courier services, cleaning contractor

Two Weeks Out: Purge and Pack

The average office has ten years of paperwork nobody has looked at. Bring in a certified document shredding service one week before packing — Iron Mountain, Shred-it, and several regional providers offer on-site bins with certificates of destruction. Every filing cabinet gets audited: keep, archive off-site, or shred.

Each employee gets a personalized packing kit two weeks before the move: three small boxes, a roll of tape, a marker, and a laminated card with their new desk code. They pack their own personal effects and label each box with their name and destination code. Anything unlabelled on move day goes into a general-purpose box, which is where lost items are born.

The Move Weekend

Friday, 5 PM: employees log off, tidy their desks, and leave. Movers begin disassembly and cable management by 6 PM. All monitors, docking stations, and cables get bagged and tagged with the employee's name — they arrive at the new desk exactly as they left. Furniture leaves the old office no later than midnight.

Saturday: install. Movers reassemble workstations at the new location, IT sets up network and printers, and cleaners follow through both spaces. By Saturday evening, every desk should be physically ready. Sunday is reserved for a dry run — the move lead walks the space, tests network, printers, phones, and the coffee machine. Fix issues before they become Monday problems.

Monday Morning

Coffee, breakfast, and clear signage. Print a floor map showing every employee's desk code and the location of restrooms, kitchen, and printers. The move lead stations themselves at the front door for the first two hours to greet the team and answer questions. By 10 AM, the office should hum like it's been open a decade — that's the standard we deliver at MoreMovers, and it's the standard your team deserves.

Ready to plan a commercial move that opens Monday like nothing happened? Book a site walkthrough with our commercial crew and we'll build the timeline together.