An office move is rarely just about boxes and desks. It is a live operation: phones need to keep ringing, IT systems need to stay up, staff need somewhere to sit on Monday morning, and clients should barely notice anything has changed. Get the planning wrong and you are looking at lost billable hours, frustrated employees, and a first impression at the new site that undoes months of goodwill.
The good news is that a business relocation follows a predictable rhythm once you know the stages. Whether you are moving a ten desk consultancy across Aberdeen or relocating a larger operation with a server room and archive stores, the same checklist applies, just scaled to size.
This guide sets out a practical timeline for an office move in Aberdeen, covering IT, phones, furniture, records, staff communication, and how to keep downtime to a minimum.
Start With a Relocation Plan, Not a Moving Date
Before anything gets booked, work out what actually needs to move, what needs to be replaced, and what can be retired. Office moves are a natural point to clear out the filing cabinet nobody has opened in three years, or the furniture that will not suit an open plan layout.
A short planning phase should answer:
- Who owns the project. One named coordinator, even in a small business, saves endless duplicated decisions.
- What the new floor plan looks like. Desk layout, meeting rooms, server or comms room location, and storage areas.
- What is moving, what is being disposed of, and what is going into interim storage.
- What downtime is acceptable. A weekend move avoids disruption; a mid-week move needs a tighter plan.
Once these questions are answered, you can build a realistic timeline and start briefing suppliers, including your removal partner.
The Office Move Timeline
Most business relocations in Aberdeen run smoothly on a timeline of around twelve weeks, though this can be compressed for smaller offices or extended for larger, multi-department moves. Use this as a working guide and adjust to your own scale.
| Timeframe | Key actions |
|---|---|
| 12 weeks before | Confirm new lease and move date, appoint a move coordinator, get quotes from commercial removal firms |
| 10 weeks before | Notify landlord of exit at current premises, plan new floor layout, book commercial removals provisionally |
| 8 weeks before | Brief IT provider on server, phone and network requirements at new site, order any new furniture or equipment with long lead times |
| 6 weeks before | Begin staff communication, confirm data cabling and connectivity install dates, arrange confidential waste and archive review |
| 4 weeks before | Start packing non-essential items, label everything by department and floor location, confirm interim storage if new site is not ready |
| 2 weeks before | Update address on stationery, signage, website, Google Business Profile and supplier accounts, finalise IT cutover plan |
| Moving week | Pack remaining items, disconnect and prepare IT equipment, confirm removal day timings with your provider |
| Move day | Furniture, equipment and records transported, IT reconnected, phones tested |
| First week after | Snagging list, staff settle in, review what worked for future moves |
If your new premises will not be ready before you have to vacate the old one, build in a storage gap now rather than scrambling for space in week two.
IT, Phones and Connectivity: Plan This Early
IT and telecoms cause more office move headaches than furniture ever does, mainly because they are booked too late. Broadband and phone line installs at a new commercial address can take several weeks to arrange, particularly if new cabling is required, so this should be one of the first calls you make, not one of the last.
Practical steps worth building into your plan:
- Confirm connectivity lead times with your provider as soon as the new lease is signed.
- Back up all servers and critical data before anything is disconnected.
- Label cabling and equipment clearly so reconnection at the new site is straightforward.
- Test phone lines and internet before staff arrive, not after.
- Have a fallback plan, such as mobile hotspots, in case connectivity is delayed by a day or two.
A short overlap where the old office phone line diverts to mobiles can bridge any gap and means clients never know a move happened.
Furniture, Equipment and Records
Office contents fall into a few clear categories, and sorting them early makes the physical move far simpler. Desks and chairs, IT hardware, communal kitchen and meeting room items, and paper records each need slightly different handling.
Records deserve particular care. Many Aberdeen businesses, particularly those in oil and gas, legal, financial or medical sectors, hold archive documents that need to remain accessible but do not need to sit in prime office space. Archive and document storage is a sensible option for older files, freeing up cabinets and shelving at the new premises for what is used day to day.
Furniture that will not suit the new layout, or that has simply reached the end of its useful life, is worth disposing of responsibly before the move rather than paying to relocate it and then bin it a month later.
Minimising Downtime and Keeping the Business Running
The businesses that manage office moves best are the ones that treat continuity as the main objective, with the physical move as a means to that end. A few habits help enormously:
- Move over a weekend or bank holiday where possible, so systems can be tested before staff return.
- Phase the move by department if the business cannot afford a full shutdown, keeping essential functions running from the old site while others transfer.
- Communicate clearly and early with staff, including where to park, how to find their desk, and who to contact with problems on day one.
- Tell clients and suppliers the new address well ahead of the move, and update your website, invoices and Google listing at the same time.
- Keep a moving day contact list with mobile numbers for IT, the removal team and the office coordinator, so problems get solved on the spot rather than escalated unnecessarily.
If your new premises need fit out work, such as electrics, partitioning or flooring, that will overlap with your move date, interim storage lets the move go ahead on schedule while the space is finished around an empty shell, rather than around desks and cabling.
Interim and Ongoing Storage
Storage is one of the most underused tools in office relocation, and one of the most useful. It can bridge a gap between old and new leases, hold archive material long term, or simply take the pressure off a tight moving day by removing items that are not needed immediately.
Shore Porters has been solving storage and moving problems in Aberdeen since 1498, originally as porters at Aberdeen Harbour, and holds ISO 9001 certification, FIDI FAIM accreditation, and membership of both BAR and FIDI. That combination of longstanding local knowledge and recognised industry standards matters when you are trusting a third party with your office equipment, client records and IT infrastructure during a vulnerable window for the business.
As a rough UK guide, commercial storage is typically charged per container or per square foot per week, with costs varying depending on volume and duration, so it is worth requesting a proper quote based on what you actually need to store rather than working from a generic figure.
Getting Help With Your Office Move
A well planned office move protects your team’s time, your client relationships and your reputation on day one at the new address. Working through the twelve week timeline above, sorting IT and phones early, and using storage sensibly for anything that does not need to travel on move day itself, will take most of the stress out of the process.
For a structured approach tailored to your business, take a look at our office moving checklist or find out more about our approach to commercial property relocations. When you are ready to plan the details, request a free move estimate and we will talk you through timings, storage options and how we can keep disruption to a minimum.
