How to plan the move: a Q&A with Annika, work.club
Annika has run the operational side of dozens of move-ins. She shares practical advice for anyone organising one themselves:
Where do you actually start?
“Ask for the measurements of the office first, you can get them from the property manager. Then start looking for furniture.”
How many quotes are needed, at a minimum?
“Three. Compare the cost, but also the delivery time, that’s so important.”
What has to be ordered first?
“Furniture, because the delivery time is the longest, and you can’t work without desks and chairs. Plants come later.”
How long does a move really take?
“For a plug-and-play office, about a month. From scratch, more like half a year. Finding the right suppliers takes the longest.”
Where do people get the timing wrong?
“The contract gets signed fast and the check-in gets planned fast, so there’s no time to make sure everything’s actually in the office on time. Sometimes I’m brought in a week before, sometimes a few days.”
What’s one thing that most people forget?
“Check everything before check-in. I go to the office straight away and go through it: does it all work, is it clean. Fix it before people arrive.”
And how do you stay on track?
“I make a list with the timing and the to-dos with everything on it, in order.”
More resources
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The office-move decision timeline
Here’s what to decide, and when, so nothing gets done too late. The short version.
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Self-reflection: behind our own move
We wrote this guide partly because we could have used it ourselves. Here's the honest take on how our own move went, from the two people who ran it. VP of marketing Fabienne Walch scoped and planned the front half. Office manager Rebecca Baddeley steered it through construction. They learned many lessons the hard way so you don’t have to.
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