Two dates run the whole project
Everything on this list hangs off two dates: the day furniture installation starts, and the day employees walk in.
Install start is set by construction substantial completion, not by your calendar. Employee day one is set by your lease overlap and your IT cutover. The distance between them is your entire margin for error, and it is usually five to ten business days.
Build the schedule backward from install start. If your furniture carries a 10-week lead time and install starts in week 12, the order has to be signed in week 2. Miss that and no amount of expediting fixes it.
Day 90 to 75: decide what moves
- ›Confirm the surrender clause on the old lease. Broom-swept, cabling pulled, walls patched. Price it now, not at the end.
- ›Inventory the existing furniture with counts, photos, and condition. This one document drives the reuse, resale, donation, and disposal decisions.
- ›Set the headcount and the peak-day number for the new space.
- ›Get the test fit and confirm the seat count it actually supports.
- ›Set the furniture budget and the not-to-exceed number.
- ›Identify long-lead items. Conference tables, custom reception, and anything with a specialty finish.
- ›Name one internal decision maker. Committees miss furniture deadlines.
Day 75 to 60: lock the plan and place the order
- ›Approve the final furniture layout against the construction drawings, not the test fit. Wall locations move.
- ›Confirm which existing pieces are moving and where they land on the new plan.
- ›Approve finishes. Sitting on finish selection is the most common cause of a blown lead time.
- ›Sign the furniture order. Lead time starts at signed order and approved finishes, not at handshake.
- ›Book the mover, the installer, and the decommissioning crew for the old space.
- ›Reserve freight elevators and loading dock windows at both buildings. In Boston and Cambridge this is often the binding constraint, and the good weeks go fast.
- ›Send certificates of insurance to both landlords.
Day 60 to 30: coordinate the trades
- ›Walk the site and field-verify dimensions against the furniture plan. Do this in person.
- ›Confirm power and data locations against every workstation, conference table, and pod on the plan. A table with no floor core is a table with a cable running across the room.
- ›Coordinate AV. Screen height, camera sightline, and table shape have to be reviewed together, not one after the other.
- ›Confirm flooring is complete before install day. Furniture cannot go down on unfinished floor.
- ›Write the responsibility matrix. Every task owned by exactly one party. Waste removal and final cleaning are the two that fall through.
- ›Order signage, keys, and access cards.
- ›Publish the seating assignment or the neighborhood map. People need to know where they are going.
Day 30 to 7: the pack plan
- ›Distribute crates and labels. One label format, one color per destination zone. Every crate gets a zone and a seat number.
- ›Set the personal item policy. What employees pack, what they carry, what the movers touch.
- ›Purge. A move is the cheapest chance you will ever get to throw out paper and dead equipment.
- ›Confirm the IT cutover sequence and who is on site for it.
- ›Confirm the furniture delivery date in writing, then confirm it again at 10 days out.
- ›Walk the new space with the installer and mark any construction items still open.
- ›Send employees the day-one instructions. Address, entrance, parking, badge, wifi, where the coffee is.
Move week and the first 30 days
New furniture installs first. Existing furniture arrives after. Employees come last. Compressing that order is how installs turn into overtime.
Someone from your team should be on site during install with authority to make decisions. Questions come up hourly, and a crew waiting on an answer is a crew you are paying to wait.
Walk the punch list with the installer before the crew leaves the building, not the following week. Damage, missing parts, and misaligned tops get resolved fastest while the truck is still at the dock.
After day one, expect a second round. Monitor arms that need adjusting, chairs that need fitting, a team that needs two more seats. Budget a small reserve and about two weeks of small corrections. Every move has them.
Then close out the old space against the surrender clause, and get the diversion report for whatever furniture you did not bring.
