Moving Offices in January? The October Furniture Playbook
January is one of the busiest months for office moves in the DC metro. Leases turn over with the calendar year, budgets reset, and companies want to start the year in the new space. If that is your plan, the furniture decisions that make or break the move happen now, in October. Here is the playbook we walk clients through.
Week One: Inventory What You Own
Walk the current office with a spreadsheet. Tag every workstation, chair, table, and file as move, sell, donate, or dispose. Be honest: moving furniture costs money per piece, and hauling worn-out chairs to a new office just relocates a problem. The inventory also reveals what the new space genuinely needs, which is the foundation of the budget.
Weeks Two and Three: Plan the New Space
Get a furniture space plan for the new floor before you order anything. Workstation counts, private office layouts, conference room sizes, storage, and reception all need to fit the actual dimensions, power locations, and building rules of the new space. This is also the moment to decide on upgrades: if you are ever going to move to height-adjustable desks or a different workstation standard, the move is the cheapest time to do it, because you are only paying installation once.
Week Four: Place the Orders
With the plan set, order the new product. As we covered earlier this month, standard workstations run four to eight weeks, which is exactly the runway between late October and a January install. Lock finishes quickly, since finish changes restart the clock. For anything that cannot arrive in time, your furniture partner should propose quick-ship or remanufactured equivalents rather than letting one backordered item hold the whole floor hostage.
November and December: Coordinate the Trades
The furniture schedule has to mesh with the movers, cablers, electricians, and building management at both ends. Reserve freight elevators early, confirm certificates of insurance, and sequence the install: systems furniture first, then private offices, then ancillary spaces. Decommissioning the old office has its own deadline, since most leases require broom-clean condition at turnover, and furniture liquidation takes longer in December than people expect.
Moving Day Should Be Boring
When the planning is done right, install week is uneventful: crews set workstations from a numbered plan, chairs arrive assembled, and your team shows up Monday to a working office. All Business Systems has managed moves like this across Northern Virginia and the DC metro for decades, handling space planning, new furniture, remanufactured options, decommissioning, and installation as one coordinated project.
If a January move is on your calendar, call ABS this month. The playbook works, but only if it starts on time.