Guide to relocating your home office

Relocating your home office is not nearly as tiring and complex as moving your company’s office. However, there are some similarities and differences between both types of relocation. The main difference is whether you can do it on your own or not. When you’re relocating your company’s office it would be best if you hired professional movers. And not just any professional movers, but a moving company that is specialized in Chicago office relocation. Whereas, when you’re relocating your home office, a regular moving company can also do a fine job. Or you can probably manage packing up everything on your own with this guide.

Do you need help relocating your home office?

We’re not going to lie to you. Moving your home office is one of the hardest rooms to move. Right after your garage and kitchen. And if you think about it, you’d quickly see why. First, there are countless papers that you need to go through and see if you’re going to pack them. And then comes the packing of all those papers, small things, IT equipment and, not to forget, the furniture. Plus, you have to be extra careful not to lose those very important papers and not to damage your expensive IT equipment when you’re packing. So it’s perfectly understandable if you opt to hire a moving company to relocate your home office for you.

If you do decide to do so, you have to be careful about who you hire. It doesn’t have to be a moving company that is specialized in office relocation. But it does have to be a professional and, more importantly, a reliable moving company Chicago. After all, they are going to be responsible for your documents. And your sensitive and important papers and documents will pass through their hands.

So, try to hire only a moving company that someone close to you recommended. However, if that’s not possible, you can always go to the Better Business Bureau’s website and look for reviews.

Guide to relocating your home office

If you’re still reading then I guess that you’ve decided to take on the task of relocating your home office yourself. So without further ado here’s a guide to relocating your home office:

Packing supplies

Paper is light as a feather, right? So it’s not important what packing supplies you’re going to use, right? If you think so then you’re wrong. One piece of paper is, indeed, light as a feather. But I imagine that you have tons of papers in your home office that you’re going to pack and move. And as soon as you have a stack of papers it becomes heavy and can’t be packed in just about anything. The same goes for books. One book by itself is not that heavy. But add to that a few more and your cardboard box will fall apart while you’re carrying it. And I hope I don’t have to tell you how important it is to have strong boxes for your fragile IT equipment.

So you have two options – find sturdy cardboard boxes or rent plastic moving boxes. Personally, I think that renting plastic moving boxes is a better option out of those two. The reason is, of course, that plastic is a much stronger material than cardboard. So your belongings will be much safer in plastic moving boxes than in cardboard boxes no matter how sturdy they are. Furthermore, plastic moving boxes are made out of plastic that can be recycled. So after they are used many times they can be recycled and used again. Which is more than we can say about cardboard boxes.

As for other packing supplies, you’re going to need packing paper, bubble wrap, packing tape, packing peanuts and something for labeling.

Packing your documents

Now that you have all the packing supplies that you need, it’s time for packing! However, when you’re relocating your home office it is very important that you go through your documents before you start packing anything. While you’re packing your home office you will certainly come across some documents that you no longer need. And it would be stupid to pack all the documents and move them to your new home office only to throw them away, wouldn’t it? Plus, this way you can save money when relocating because it will only cost you more to relocate your home office because your cargo would be heavier.

That’s why you should make three piles:

1. pack – this pile is for every document that is important and you need to keep
2. shred – this is for documents that are outdated or useless but confidential and as such shouldn’t be seen by anyone else
3. recycle – here you should put all of the documents that are outdated and useless but not confidential

Once you have only the “pack” file you can try organizing it using some sort of system that suits you the best. Or you can just pack them in plastic moving boxes and organize them later while unpacking. When the box is full, seal it, label it “home office” and write down a brief description of its contents.

Packing your IT equipment

Most of the home offices have a lot of IT equipment like desktop computers, laptops, monitors, printers, copiers, scanners, phones and so on. And since all of those things are rather fragile and expensive you should pay more attention when you’re packing them.

So before you start unplugging anything, you should take pictures of how each device is wired up. It will save you a lot of time when you’re unpacking. And maybe even some money and headache, because you can permanently damages some electronic devices if you wire them up incorrectly.

You should pack the cables with their corresponding devices in their original boxes because they are made precisely for that device and as such, they provide the best possible protection. If you don’t have the original package try finding a similar sized box, use padding materials to secure the inside of the box and fill the empty space with packing peanuts. Seal the boxes and with that, you’re done with relocating your home office!