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How house movers are different from office movers

There are numerous types of relocations but all of them generally fall into two primary categories: house moving (or residential moving) and office moving (or commercial moving). Both of these categories of relocations are handled by different types of moving companies i.e. house movers and office movers respectively. In this blog, we take a look at the differences that are present between moving a house and moving an office, and how the services that are provided by house movers differ from the services that are provided by office movers.

HOW TO PLAN AND ORGANIZE A HOUSE MOVE:

Each year, there are millions of people that move their homes from one location to another, either within the same city, interstate, or somewhere abroad. In this section, we take a look at how you can plan and organize a house move for ensuring a smooth and efficient relocation:

Decluttering the home:

When you are the owner of a house, everything that is part of your house is your own property – there are certain things that you like, there are certain things that you need, and there are certain things that you use. But if there is something that is neither of these, you can sell it, donate it, or simply throw it away before the move!

For instance, you can host a garage sale for selling off all the unnecessary items in your home before your move. This will not only declutter your home for a simplified move, but will also allow you to earn some money while you are at it!

Consider storage:

When you are moving house, a good idea is to store some of your valuable belongings in a storage unit or warehouse facility that is offered by moving companies. This willa short-term effort that will allow you to put up your house for sale without all of the stuff in it.

However, it is important to mention here that unlike office relocation, you will only require a limited storage space for your house move and will not need to keep your belongings stored in these facilities for long – just short-term.

Prepare your pantry:

Before your move, you need to cut down on your pantry and groceries because you cannot take the food (cooked and frozen) and similar pantry items with you because they do not travel well. In advance to the month of your move, start buying only what you will need before and during the moving process, nothing more to avoid wastage.

Pack room by room:

It is highly likely that you will be moving to a house that has the same (or greater) number of rooms than your current one. Therefore, you are likely to relocate each room in your current house to another room in your new house. So, when you are packing everything for the relocation, label each of the boxes to indicate the contents that are inside it – for instance, bedroom, kitchen, etc. An additional box that is labelled “Open First” should also be packed that will contain all the most important things (that you will need as soon as you arrive in your new home).

Remove distractions:

On the moving day and while you pack, it is important that you make arrangements for the pets and children to be away from the home to avoid any inconveniences. This will ease the stress from your side and make the job more convenient and simpler for the movers.

HOW TO PLAN AND ORGANIZE AN OFFICE MOVE:

Now that you have an idea of how the house relocation process works, let us take a look at how one should go about planning and organizing an office move. When you are the owner of an office and are looking to relocate your business to another location, there are countless questions that will come to your mind. We have put together some of the key tips for how you should approach an office move for ensuring smooth and efficient relocation:

Plan The Move:

The first thing that you need to do is to plan out the steps that will be involved with the office relocation. Start by creating a timeline that will pan out all the important stages of the move with the estimated time period for that stage. For this, you will need to consult your moving team (whether in-house or hired), managers, supervisors, and other management employees to ensure that it isfeasible. Ideally, you need approximately three to four months to move if you are a small office owner or approximately seven to eight months if you are a large office owner. The key here is to start planning and preparing for the move as soon as possible.

Once you have everything in order with the timely, the next step that you need to take is to gather information about the space or office that you will be moving to. If you have purchased it yourself or have acquired it through a real estate agent, try to contact the appropriate owners of the location for obtaining the blueprints or the floor layout for your new office. This will help you identify the key components of the new location such as the storage space, electrical outlets, and most importantly, the overall layout of the office. This is important because having an understanding of the new office location will help you compare your current space with the new space so that you can identify how exactly will the relocation take place (what departments will be moved where, how will the electrical wiring be done, etc.).

It is also a wise idea to list out all of the potential problems that you can find with your new office space, such as a smaller storage area or a larger reception area so that you can accommodate these issues upon your relocation (with cubicles, temporary walls, or even reconstruction). You might need to hire painters, carpenters, and electricians to address all of your concerns. All of this is essential because you do not want these workers to be around when you have relocated your office, all of this has to be done beforehand!

Gather A Moving Team:

We recommend that before you start working towards the move, you either appoint or ask for volunteers from each division or department from your office. This will help since each individual will be responsible for coordinating the move for their particular area. Applying this divide and conquer technique will help you carry out the relocation process in a more convenient and efficient manner.

A good idea would be to assign this moving duty to the manager or supervisor of each department. It would be their responsibility to ensure that all the employees of their department pack their desks, personal items, and files to make the move more smooth. Your team will also help you identify the issues that are present in the current location and the new location and how they can be addressed. This is a great way to go about your move since you will be in sync with your entire team during the move to ensure that everyone is happy and satisfied with the moving process.

Conduct Regular Meetings:

Remember to schedule regular meetings for the move in your moving timeline – notify all of your managers, supervisors, and employees of these meetings. In each meeting, let them know about what they need to do (from packing and planning to unpacking and redecorating) and keep them informed about the move to limit any concerns or worries that they may have. Moving is a stressful task, not just for you as an office owner but for your employees, as well! Make sure that your decisions are well communicated and that your entire team is up to date with all the moving progress.

Define Your Moving Budget:

Identify all of the costs that will be involved with your move, that include the cost of electricians, carpenters, painters, and other services that you will require for setting up your new location. Keep this budget in mind when you are hiring the movers, or better yet, even before you start packing for the move!

Assign Responsibilities:

You have your in-house moving team ready, the next step now is to create a list of tasks that you need to be completed for the move. Ask the managers/supervisors of each department about what is required from their particular area. For instance, a particular department may need a computer network specialist or a telephone (or internet) line installer for the move. Add these tasks to your moving scheduleand budget. Once this is done, assign relevant responsibilities to your moving team to ensure that these tasks are completed. Keep the reception area, lobby, and lounge in mind when you are looking for things that you need to get done!

One critical task that needs to be performed is to hire an office mover. There are numerous moving companies that specialize in moving offices such as InterstateRemovalists.Sydney. Make sure that you conduct your research, ask relevant questions, and have the relocation company survey your office before relocating. As with a house move, you need to make sure that the relocation service is reliable and offers you the services within your allocated budget.

Make A List Of Contacts:

The last step that you need to take before you actually start with the move is to make sure everyone knows that you are relocation, particularly your suppliers and clients. This is important because you do not just want to disappear overnight and then asking your suppliers and clients to visit your new location. Instead, you should keep them informed about the move before you start the relocation process so that they can adjust accordingly, as well.

The best way to approach this is to assign a specific person from your office to oversee this. Notify the customers, clients, and clients with all the information that they need about your relocation (when will you relocate, where will you relocate, how can you provide them services even after the relocation) – what is most important here is that you communicate this in a manner such that your clients do not go elsewhere for the product or service they are looking for.

WHAT MOVERS WILL DO FOR YOU:

Before your moving day, movers will make a house visit in order to assess your home and all the things that they will be needing to transport. The main reason for this visit is to create a plan for the moving day operations. It is also to make an estimate of the total cost of the move based on the items that need to be transported as well as the distance of the move.

On the day of the move, the movers are completely responsible for the transport of your things from your old location to the new home. The moving company men will arrange and organize your packed belongings and furniture and load them up safely in the transport truck.

A quality service team maintains an inventory as your precious belongings are loaded on to the truck. This allows them to keep check if anything is lost or damaged on the truck during transport. Once every item is loaded the moving company is responsible for the safe transport and on time arrival of all the loaded goods.

After the truck arrives at your new location, the moving company’s men will unload your crates and furniture to your desired rooms. If your booking also includes unpacking services then the movers will unpack all your crates after unloading them from the transport truck.

Lastly, the moving company’s men will collect all due payments and make sure all documentations are signed and approved by you regarding the safe arrival of your goods.

WHAT MOVERS WILL NOT DO:

Professional relocation companies provide some great support while moving but are also very strict when it comes to policy. Here are a few things that no moving company worth its salt will transport.

  • Moving dangerous items: Movers are not responsible to move items that can be dangerous. Hazardous or flammable items or explosives cannot be transported by any moving company legally.
  • Moving perishable items: Moving companies require refrigerators and freezers to be emptied out before the moving day inorder for them to be transported. While moving long distances, try not to pack items that are perishable and can spoil during transit.
  • Moving broken, damaged boxes: Many moving companies with strict policies do not let damaged boxes to be loaded onto transport trucks and even if they let them load such boxes the waive off any liability or responsibility for the items inside the truck.

If you want to make sure that your boxes are of transportation quality, buy them from your moving company or book your movers to pack all your belongings for you.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOUSE MOVERS AND OFFICE MOVERS?

Now that you have an understanding of what are the steps that are involved in a house move and the steps that are involved in an office move, you can imagine how the services provided by house movers and office movers are different. In the sections above, we highlighted the services that movers provide and those that the movers do not provide such as handling dangerous items, this holds true for both types of movers – house movers and office movers.

Furthermore, there are several types of services that are common to both house movers and office movers i.e. both of them offer these services. These include services for planning, packing, crating, transportation, unpacking, and redecoration. Having said this, these services vary significantly for both office relocations and house relocations, particularly in terms of the pricing and the extent to which they cover your move – for instance, with house moving, there will be no need for sea freight or air freight in the transportation service but these may be required for an office move.

We take an in-depth look at the differences between the services provided by house movers and office movers below:

Planning:

House movers will schedule and budget the entire move for you when you opt for their planning services. They will let you know about how you should go about your move and when each stage of the move (packing, transportation, unpacking, and redecoration) will take place. The plan will also incorporate details about what is to be packed, how will it be packed, and everything that you need to do for the move. All in all, the plan that will be provided to you by a house moving company will outline all the steps that will be involved in your in details. In most cases, the house moving company will allocate a single move coordinator to cooperate and communicate with you throughout the move. This coordinator will be responsible for planning, organizing, and managing the entire moving process from the very onset until you have settled in your new home.

Office movers, on the other hand, will provide you a more comprehensive and advanced planning service. While it is not necessary that house movers have experience with planning out moves, it is essential that office movers know exactly what processes are involved with moving an office. In general, an office mover will study your company’s profile, conduct an in-house survey of your office, and ask you about your exact requirements from the move before planning out everything for you. This will also involve everything that your employees or staff are expected to do, and what the movers will do for you. Additionally, a thorough and detailed budget plan and timeline will also be drawn up by the movers as part of the planning service. In most cases, the office moving company will allocate a team of move coordinators to cooperate and communicate with you. This team will be responsible for handling the planning and organization of the relocation of each of your departments from the current location to the new location to ensure a smooth and efficient moving experience for you.

Transportation:

House movers will cover all of the basic road freight services for facilitating your move. These mainly involve wagons, trucks, and buses but can extend to be as big as trailers and trains, depending on your exact requirements. Air freight and sea freight services are not offered by house movers because such transportation requirements are not a part of moving a house. The cost of transportation services is highly competitive and you will be able to find the right kind of transportation for your move. You will be assigned a team of movers that will be responsible for loading and unloading all of your packed valuables into the trucks before and after the transportation process. This team will arrive at your doorstep on the moving day itself (not before that) for beginning the loading process.

Office movers will provide you with services for not only road freight but sea freight and air freight, as well. Depending on the type of your move, size of your move, and your exact requirements, an office mover might recommend transporting your valuables over the air or through the sea.  Due to this, the costs of the transportation service vary drastically depending on what your move will require and what kind of freight will be needed. Like with house movers, office movers will also assign you a team of movers for facilitating the loading and unloading but this time, the team will arrive before the actual moving day to begin the loading process (since the size of the move requires more time for the loading process to be completed).

Warehousing and Storage:

When you are moving house, the need for a storage facility or warehouse is rare because you want your valuables to be transported to your new home as soon as possible. However, if you require a little extra space for storing your belongings during the move then you can opt for the storage services that are provided by house movers. Most house movers will provide you with storage racks or small storage areas that are suitable for your needs at economical prices. Unlike office movers, house movers do not offer a large area of storage in their warehouse.

With office moving, the size of the move is much larger than that of a house relocation. The number of items that have to be transported is much higher and there are several large-sized furniture and machinery that has to be moved, as well. For this purpose, the storage facilities that are made available by office movers are much larger – you can reserve large storage rooms or areas for safekeeping your valuables while they are being transported to the new location. When you are moving office, you will find that this service is an essential part of the movingprocess, especially if there is renovation work (painting, restructuring, etc.) going on in your new office location.

Furniture Assembly and Disassembly:

House movers are experienced at handling home-based furniture that includes sofas, beds, and wardrobes. If you opt for house moving service, it is highly likely that they will have a team ready for disassembling and reassembling for furniture for making it more convenient to transport them to your new home. However, house movers are not equipped with the tools or personnel to handle large and heavy furniture such as those found in offices.

Office movers are experienced at assembling, disassembling, handling, and transporting all office-based furniture that includes large and heavy furniture items such as wooden cubicles, workstations, and filing cabinets. The corporate packages that are offered by office movers generally include furniture assembly and disassembly services that make it convenient for you to move your furniture to a new location.

Machinery Assembly and Disassembly:

This is a service that is exclusively offered by office movers only. If you have computers networks, printing equipment, and other machinery setup in your current office then you will know how much of a nuisance it can be to relocate these items within the same location, let alone transporting them to a new office altogether. Fortunately though, office movers are skilled with handling such machinery and they will take care of the transportation of these items for you. Most office movers will make a blueprint and take a picture of the current wiring setup of your office equipment then disassemble everything for ease in transportation. Upon the arrival of these goods at your new office, they will make use of the blueprints to reassemble everything just like it was before! House movers do not offer this service because this kind of machinery is not commonly found in homes.

CONCLUSION:

The process of moving a house is quite different from the process of moving an office. While moving a house is generally much simpler than moving an office, it still requires careful planning and strategy to make sure that the relocation is smooth and efficient.The services that are offered by office movers are more extensive and sizable than those that are offered by house movers. This is because moving an office requires more resources, manpower, and skills to ensure a smooth and efficient relocation. In addition to the services that we have mentioned above, office movers also provide insurance services to cover up for any losses that might occur during the move, which is not as common with house movers.