Thursday Thirteen: 13 ways to make your office move easier

Jun. 21st, 2007 at 3:34 PM

Thirteen ways to make your office move easier

1. Order extra move boxes. I thought I'd need four. I needed six.

2. Find out which wall/LAN ports are being activated. I set my stuff up on one of the desks in the office, only to discover they'd activated the ports for the other desk, so I had to move everything.

3. Beg or borrow a cart. The movers won't take everything. They won't take your laptop, or the phones, or your artwork, or the 12 bottles you have left of a 24-pack of water. They will, however, take your desk chair, so the time-honored traditional way of moving things -- loading up your chair and pushing it through the halls -- is not an option.

4. Print large labels for all your stuff being moved. That won't ensure it's delivered to the right office. But at least the movers know which stuff is supposed to leave the old office, and will probably get most of it in your new office, and the rest pretty close.

5. Bring a roll of paper towels. Yes, the offices and furniture were cleaned thoroughly before you moved in. But the insides of the desk drawers weren't. And there's a lot of dust on the stuff you're moving since some of it hasn't been cleaned since the last move. Plus, you don't want to be sweeping up things like metal shavings from the new light fixture with your hand.

6. Pack each segment of your top drawer in a separate envelope. It seems like overkill, but it makes it much easier to just dump each envelope into the appropriate place, rather than trying to pick your coins out of your pile of paperclips.

7. Test all furniture immediately. This way, when the drawers on the right-hand side of the desk don't open, you can report it to the move coordinator and the four maintenance guys who are all making sure the move goes well.

8. Find where the keys have been hidden. And if you have four locks and one key, you can make a list of the missing keys for those nice maintenance guys and move coordinator.

9. Be friendly. Those nice maintenance guys? They have complete discretion over what gets put in your office. So you can get a pristine, large tack board in a nice shade of off-white. Or you can get a stained, small tack board in burnt orange.

10. Clear your schedule. You'll be told in advance what day you're moving, and shortly before the fact, roughly what time. So make sure you're not trying to dial in to a telecon when your phone is disconnected. Send your regrets, or have someone else cover meetings for you.

11. Unpack pens/paper first. You might be tempted to start unpacking the big things, like computer manuals and file folders. But if you start with the pens and paper, you'll be ready to work -- or at least make notes about work -- and can make your list to give to the nice maintenance people.

12. Hook up your computer and phone before unpacking. Hopefully, in the correct wall/LAN ports. Their position is governed by the placement of the cords, and the position of everything else on your desk is governed by the position of them.

13. Wear jeans and an easily washed shirt. The reasoning for this should be obvious.

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