How To Pack
A Home Office
Getting Started
Pack For
Tomorrow Morning
A home office is the room that has to work first at the other end, and it is usually packed last and worst. The principle that makes it easy is to pack for the morning after the move rather than for the move itself. That means the machine you actually work on, its cables and the documents you need travel with you, not on the truck. Everything else can be boxed normally. Half an hour of labeling before you unplug anything saves an evening of matching black cables to black ports under a desk.
Photograph the back of everything before unplugging
Thirty seconds per device and it removes all the guesswork later. Do this before you touch a single cable.
Label both ends of every cable
Masking tape and a pen. Both ends, because a cable labeled at one end tells you half of what you need.
Your working machine travels with you
A laptop or desktop you depend on for work should be in your car, not on a truck. So should the drives with anything irreplaceable on them.
Monitors need original boxes or real protection
Screens are the most commonly damaged item in a home office move. If you have kept the box, use it. If not, they need to be wrapped and travel upright, never flat with anything on top.
Back up before you pack
Not because moving is dangerous, but because it is the one moment when all your equipment is in transit at once. It costs an hour and removes the worst case entirely.
By Item
How To Pack
Each Thing
Desktop computer
In its original box if you have it. Otherwise well padded upright in a sturdy box, never on its side. Remove any external drives and carry those separately.
Monitors
Original box first choice. Otherwise wrapped in blankets or foam, traveling upright and vertical, never stacked flat.
Cables and peripherals
Coiled, labeled at both ends and bagged by device rather than by type, so a monitor arrives with its own power and display cables.
Printers
Remove ink and toner cartridges and bag them separately, they leak. Tape down any moving parts and lids.
Documents and files
Boxed upright in small boxes, because paper is far heavier than people expect. Anything confidential or irreplaceable travels with you.
Desk and shelving
Disassembled where it comes apart, with fixings bagged and taped to the item itself rather than collected in one box.
The Order
Pack In This
Sequence
Back up everything first
Before anything is unplugged. Cloud, external drive, whichever you use, just do it while everything is still connected.
Photograph every connection
Backs of machines, monitor connections, the router and anything with more than two cables going into it.
Set aside what travels with you
Working machine, drives, documents you need, chargers, and anything you would be upset to lose. This box or bag never goes on the truck.
Label and coil the cables
Both ends, bagged by device. This is the step that decides whether you work tomorrow or spend the evening under a desk.
Box the rest and disassemble the furniture
Documents in small boxes, peripherals padded, then the desk and shelving last since you need the surface until the end.
Setting Up Again
Working By
The Next Morning
If you want to be working the morning after the move, do three things at the new address before anything else. Set up the router and confirm internet works, because everything else waits on it and it is the one thing you cannot fix yourself at nine at night. Then unpack the box that traveled with you, which should have your machine, its cables and your documents. Then set the desk and monitors before unpacking anything else in the house, because it takes twenty minutes when the room is empty and two hours once the room is full of boxes. Everything else in a home office can wait a week without costing you anything. Our packing services page covers full and partial packing if you would rather not do it yourself.
FAQ
How to Pack a Home Office
Questions
Related
Moving A Home Office?
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