Documents are the one category where a move creates a legal exposure rather than a replacement cost. A broken lamp is an inconvenience. A box of client files that nobody can account for between Friday afternoon and Monday morning is a different kind of problem, particularly for firms holding medical, financial, or legal records.
The answer is a chain of custody. Know what moved, who sealed it, who carried it, and who confirmed it arrived.
Separate Records by Sensitivity Before You Pack
Not every file needs the same handling, and treating them identically means either overspending on the whole archive or underprotecting the part that matters. Sort before anything is boxed.
Regulated records come first. Anything covered by a retention obligation or a privacy requirement, including medical files, financial records, personnel files, and signed client agreements.
Operational records sit second, meaning the paperwork a business needs to function but which carries no regulatory weight. Everything else is the bulk, and most of it should have been destroyed years ago. That third category is where a move pays for itself, since you are otherwise paying hourly to carry paper nobody will open again.
Run the destruction before the move rather than after it. A certified shredding service handles regulated material properly and gives you a certificate of destruction, which is the document that matters if anyone asks later. Doing this first also shrinks the volume the crew is carrying, which shows up directly on an hourly invoice.
Build an Actual Chain of Custody
Chain of custody sounds formal and amounts to four things written down. What is in each container, who sealed it, when it left, and who signed for it at the other end. Reconstructing that after the fact is impossible, which is why it has to exist before the truck arrives.
- Number every carton and record its contents on a master list
- Seal regulated records with tamper-evident tape, not standard packing tape
- Keep the master list with a person, never inside a box
- Assign one named employee to confirm the count at both addresses
- Photograph sealed cartons before loading and after unloading
For most offices, this adds an hour of work and removes the entire category of unanswerable questions afterward. If a client or an auditor asks later, you have a record instead of a recollection.
We handle office moves with our own crew rather than contracting the work out, so the people signing for your file cartons are the people who sealed them.
Decide What Never Goes on the Truck
Some material should not be handed to anyone, however good the mover. Original incorporation documents, signed originals of active contracts, licenses and permits, anything holding original signatures, and the server or drives containing digital records belong in a vehicle driven by someone who works for the company.
The same logic covers the personal equivalent for business owners who are moving a home office at the same time. Passports, deeds, titles, tax records, and anything irreplaceable travel with the person rather than on a truck.
The full list for a household move is covered in documents to carry with you, and the principle does not change when the boxes belong to a business instead of a family.
Moving an office with regulated records?
Tell us in the quote, and we will scope the file room separately from the rest of the floor.
Pack File Cabinets the Way They Actually Move
Full file cabinets are heavy, unbalanced, and a leading cause of both damage and injury on office moves. A four-drawer lateral cabinet packed with paper exceeds what two people should be lifting, and the drawers will open on a stair turn if they are not secured.
The usual answer is to empty them into numbered cartons, which also gives you the inventory you need for the chain of custody. Some cabinets can move loaded if the crew has the right equipment and the building access allows it, so ask rather than assume either way.
Our guidance on emptying file cabinets before a move covers when it is worth the labor and when it is not. Either way, lock every cabinet and keep the keys with the person holding the master list.
Verify on Arrival, Then Handle the Follow-Through
The confirmation at the new address is the step that gets skipped because everyone is tired and the day has run long. Do it anyway, and do it before the crew leaves. Count the cartons against the master list, check that seals are intact, and note anything that does not match while the people who carried it are still present.
Then close the loop on everything the paperwork depends on. Address changes with regulators, licensing bodies, banks, insurers, and registered agent services all have their own timelines, and a business operating from an address that does not match its filings creates its own problems.
Working through transferring records after a move in the first week is easier than untangling it in month three.
Relocating an office in Salt Lake City?
Call us for a walkthrough, and we will plan the file room before anything else gets scheduled.
