An office move in Denver is two projects running at the same time. The move itself (IT, phones, packing, movers, cleaning, security transfers) is the visible one. The furniture side is the invisible one, and it is where most moves quietly go over budget, over schedule, or both. Sequencing wrong, ordering late, and forgetting to decommission the outgoing space are the three failures we see over and over from companies attempting this without help.
This piece is the full furniture timeline and checklist we use at Pear Project Services to run corporate office moves across the Denver metro. Copy it, adapt it, and use it to keep your move on schedule and under budget. Or hand the whole furniture side to us and let our Denver office relocation team run it.
Key Points
- Start the furniture side of your office move six to eight weeks before move-in day. Anything less than six weeks and you are paying rush rates or living without pieces you needed.
- Inventory first, decisions second. Every piece of existing furniture gets sorted into keep, replace, or decommission. That sort drives everything else.
- Land new or refurbished pieces the week before move-in. Not move-in day. Not the week after. The week before, so your team walks in Monday to a working office.
- Coordinate the decommission of the outgoing space with the move-in at the new space. Same vendor handling both is dramatically cheaper and faster than juggling two schedules.
Why Denver Office Moves Go Sideways (and How to Avoid It)
Most bad office moves fail on the same handful of things. Understanding them upfront is the difference between a smooth Monday morning and a two-week scramble.
Starting furniture planning too late. The single most common failure. Companies focus on the movers, the IT transition, and the lease paperwork, then realize four weeks out that the desks in the new space are the wrong size for the layout. Rush orders, expedited freight, and improvised solutions all cost more than a proper eight-week plan.
Failing to sort inventory upfront. Moving everything from the old space is expensive and usually unnecessary. About 30 to 50 percent of the furniture in any established office is either past its useful life, does not fit the new layout, or is not worth the move cost. Sorting that out on Day One saves thousands of dollars in unnecessary hauling.
Ignoring the outgoing lease surrender. Most commercial leases in Denver require the space to be returned “broom clean” with all tenant furniture removed. If you forget to plan the decommission of the old space, your last month in it becomes a scramble to clear furniture, and lease penalties can hit.
Uncoordinated vendors. Movers, IT, phone systems, security, cleaners, and furniture teams all working from separate schedules and separate points of contact. Nothing runs on time. Everything overlaps. Something gets missed.
Overlapping lease costs eating the savings. A two-week overlap between the old lease and the new one, at Denver commercial rates, easily runs $8,000 to $20,000. That’s real money that better sequencing would have saved.
Underestimating Denver-specific building rules. Downtown Denver Class A buildings each have their own freight elevator protocols, COI requirements at specific liability limits, loading dock windows, after-hours delivery fees, and pre-approved vendor lists. A furniture team that has never worked in your building learns these rules the hard way, usually at the expense of your install schedule. A vendor who already knows the building shows up with the right paperwork on the right day.
The rest of this piece is how to avoid all six.
Every Denver Office Manager Has a Bad Move Story.
Ask around. The desks that arrived at 4:30 pm on move-in day. The conference table too big for the freight elevator. The cubicles nobody could figure out how to reassemble. The moving crew that showed up two days late because nobody confirmed the schedule.
These are not exotic failures. They are the default outcome when the furniture side of an office move is treated as an afterthought instead of a real project with real dependencies. The fix is not more effort on move week. It is starting the plan earlier and running it with a single team.
The 8-Week Office Move Furniture Timeline for Denver
Here is the timeline we use for corporate moves in the Denver metro. Adjust for the size of your team, but do not compress the front-end steps. Compression is what kills these projects.
Week 8: Walkthrough of the new space. Confirm dimensions, freight elevator specs, loading dock access, and building rules (COI requirements, insurance limits, delivery hours). Photograph everything. Map power and data locations relative to where furniture needs to sit.
Week 7: Inventory the existing furniture. Every desk, chair, cubicle, table, storage piece, and any executive-office furniture. Sort into three buckets: Keep and move, Replace at new location, and Decommission. Photograph everything you plan to keep. Confirm dimensions against the new-space floor plan.
Week 6: Final decisions and orders. Confirm the keep/replace/decommission list. Place orders for any used office furniture in Denver needed at the new location, or for new pieces if a specific configuration requires it. Lead times for used commercial-grade pieces from our warehouse run same-week; new pieces from a dealer run six to ten weeks, which is why you order in Week 6, not Week 3.
Week 5: Confirm decommission schedule for the old space. Coordinate with the outgoing landlord on surrender requirements. Lock the decommission date. If you are using the buyback option (highly recommended for commercial-grade pieces), get the walkthrough scheduled with our Denver decommissioning team.
Week 4: Confirm delivery windows. Get written confirmation from every vendor. Confirm freight elevator reservations at the new building. Confirm the Denver office furniture installation crew.
Week 3: Coordinate the layout install plan. Walk the new space with the install crew if possible. Mark where each piece goes. Update the floor plan if anything changed.
Week 2: Prep the new space. Any last-minute paint, carpet, or TI work should be complete. Confirm the space is truly ready for furniture. Delayed TI is the single biggest reason installations get pushed.
Week 1 (the week before move-in): Deliver and install. New and refurbished furniture arrives at the new space, gets assembled, and gets placed by the layout. This is the week your team is still in the old space. When they arrive at the new space, everything is set up and working.
Move Day: Personal moves and physical relocation. Team packs personal items and moves them. Movers handle any pieces being moved from the old space. IT completes the transition.
Week 0 (post move-in): Decommission the old space. The moment your team is out of the old space, the decommission of remaining furniture begins. This is where the same-vendor approach saves real money.
Week +1: Punch list and adjustments. Every move has a punch list. Ergonomic adjustments on chairs. A desk that needs to shift three feet. Cable management cleanup. Handle it in Week +1 and move on.
What to Actually Move vs Replace vs Decommission
The rule of thumb: if a piece is worth less than the cost of moving it, replace it. If it is worth more than the cost of moving it, move it. If it is not worth either, decommission it. Here is how that breaks down by category for a typical Denver office.
Task chairs almost always move. They are lightweight, high-value, and durable. Even a used commercial-grade chair like a Herman Miller Aeron or Steelcase Leap that came out of a decommission is worth more than the cost of relocating it. If replacements are needed, walk our used office chairs Denver inventory.
Desks depend on age and condition. A five-year-old commercial-grade sit-stand desk in good condition is worth moving. A ten-year-old laminate desk with edge banding falling off is worth decommissioning and replacing with a used piece from our used office desks inventory in Denver.
Cubicles rarely move. Disassembly, transport, and reassembly of a full cubicle system usually costs more than acquiring a matching used system from our warehouse and having it installed at the new location. Cubicles are one of the highest-savings categories on a move. Browse used office cubicles in Denver.
Workstations and benching depend on configuration. If the new layout is different, workstations rarely move cleanly. See our used office workstations Denver inventory for matching replacements at 60 to 70 percent off retail.
Conference room furniture usually moves. Low use, high value, easy transport. Only replace if the piece is genuinely damaged or does not fit the new space. Otherwise, if you need a new setup, see our used conference room furniture inventory.
Reception furniture usually moves too. Same logic. When it does need replacement, our used reception furniture in Denver inventory has front-of-office pieces sized for most lobby configurations.
Executive desks and casegoods depend on the new office size. If the new executive suite is smaller or larger than the old one, replace rather than force-fit. Browse used executive office furniture or used executive desks in Denver for right-sized options.
Storage and file cabinets depend on volume. A single file cabinet is worth moving. Twenty file cabinets are worth decommissioning most of them and buying used replacements sized to what you actually need in the new space, which is usually less than you think, thanks to cloud storage. See used file cabinets in Denver.
Every one of these calls gets easier when you have a decommissioning partner running the outgoing side and a used-furniture warehouse handling the incoming side. Both happen to be the same operation at Pear Project Services.
We Know the Denver Buildings Better Than Most Denver Movers Do.
Every downtown Denver Class A building has its own rules. Freight elevator reservations 48 hours out. COI requirements at specific liability limits. Loading dock windows that shift by building. After-hours delivery fees. A building manager who wants specific paperwork before the truck arrives. Getting one of these wrong turns a two-hour install into a two-day one.
The Pear team has been running Denver office moves for 40 years, which means we already know which building needs what, who to call, and how to schedule the freight elevator so the install crew is not standing in the lobby at 7 am. That single-vendor advantage (one contract, one schedule, one phone number) matters even more when the vendor already knows the building.
Coordinating the Decommission of Your Old Denver Office
Most commercial leases in Denver require the tenant to return the space “broom clean” with all tenant-installed furniture and equipment removed. That obligation lives in the lease document you signed however many years ago, and it is enforceable. Failing to plan for it turns into lease penalties, extra rent, or damage claims that can wipe out any savings from a well-run move.
Our team handles the decommission side of Denver office moves as a coordinated scope with the move-in. See our full office decommissioning service in Denver for the scope details, but here is what the actual project looks like in practice.
Walkthrough of the outgoing space. We inventory what needs to be removed. Furniture, cubicles, storage, and anything considered tenant improvements that has to come out.
Buyback offer on commercial-grade pieces. Anything worth resale (Herman Miller, Steelcase, Haworth, Knoll, Teknion, Kimball, Allsteel, HON) gets a buyback offer that reduces the net cost of the decommission. On floors with high-quality commercial furniture, the buyback often covers the entire removal cost.
Sorted disposition. Pieces with resale value return to our Denver used office furniture warehouse. Usable pieces without resale value route to donation. E-waste goes to a certified processor. Only pieces with no viable disposition go to landfill, usually under 20 percent of the total.
Landfill diversion documentation. Every project closes with a diversion certificate for ESG and sustainability reporting. Ownership groups increasingly ask for this.
Coordinated timing. The decommission happens as soon as your team clears the old space, which is usually the same week as the move-in at the new space. That single-vendor coordination is what keeps the lease overlap short and the total cost down.
Front Range Office Moves (Beyond Denver Metro)
Not every Denver-headquartered office move stays in the Denver metro. If your new space is up I-25 or over US 36, we deliver, install, and decommission across the full Front Range on the same weekly truck routes.
Boulder office moves. Our used office furniture in Boulder service handles moves up US 36 with same-week delivery from the Denver warehouse.
Colorado Springs office moves. Our used office furniture in Colorado Springs service runs twice-a-week delivery routes down I-25.
Fort Collins, Greeley, and Loveland moves. Same-week delivery on our Fort Collins and Greeley routes.
The Complete Denver Office Move Furniture Checklist
Copy this list, hand it to whoever is running your move, and check items off as they close.
8 weeks out:
- Walkthrough of the new space complete
- New-space floor plan finalized
- Building rules confirmed (COI, delivery hours, freight elevator access)
7 weeks out: 4. Existing furniture fully inventoried 5. Keep/replace/decommission sort complete 6. Photos of every keep piece confirmed against new floor plan
6 weeks out: 7. Orders placed for new or refurbished pieces 8. Old-space decommission vendor confirmed 9. Landlord notified of surrender approach
5 weeks out: 10. Decommission walkthrough of old space complete 11. Buyback offer received (if applicable) 12. Movers under contract with confirmed dates
4 weeks out: 13. Written delivery confirmations from every furniture vendor 14. Freight elevator reservations locked 15. Install crew confirmed
3 weeks out: 16. Layout install plan reviewed with install crew 17. Any last floor plan changes finalized
2 weeks out: 18. TI work at new space complete 19. Space cleaning scheduled for post-install 20. Team notified of move-day protocol
Week 1 (the week before move-in): 21. New furniture delivered and installed 22. Punch list started 23. IT and phones staged for cutover
Move day: 24. Team packs and moves personal items 25. Movers relocate any pieces being kept 26. IT completes cutover
Week 0 (post move-in): 27. Decommission of old space begins immediately 28. Buyback pieces returned to Pear warehouse 29. Old-space walkthrough and surrender scheduled
Week +1: 30. Punch list closed 31. Ergonomic adjustments completed 32. Decommission close-out packet received (diversion certificate, buyback credit, final invoice)
Have a Denver Office Move Coming Up? Book the Walkthrough.
Send us your move-in target date, the size of your team, and the address of both spaces. We will schedule walkthroughs at both, quote the full furniture scope (decommission of the old space, delivery and install at the new space, punch list), and send you a written timeline you can hand to your project team.
Or call (303) 351-2259 to talk through the plan.
Frequently Asked Questions About Planning an Office Move in Denver
How far in advance should I start planning an office move in Denver?
Start planning an office move in Denver six to eight weeks before your target move-in date. Anything less than six weeks and you are paying rush rates on furniture orders, expedited freight, and last-minute install crews. Six to eight weeks lets you inventory the existing space, sort keep/replace/decommission decisions, order refurbished or new pieces at standard lead times, and coordinate the decommission of the outgoing space.
How much does an office move cost in Denver?
Office move costs in Denver vary widely based on team size, distance, and how much furniture moves versus gets replaced. For a 25-person office moving locally, the furniture side alone (decommission of old, delivery and install of new or refurbished, punch list) typically runs $8,000 to $20,000 net of any buyback credit on commercial-grade pieces. Larger moves scale up but often come in at lower per-seat cost due to volume efficiencies.
What is the biggest mistake companies make when planning an office move?
The single biggest mistake is starting the furniture side of the move too late. Companies focus on movers, IT, and lease paperwork and then realize four weeks out that furniture decisions still need to be made and orders still need to be placed. The result is rush orders, expedited freight, and gaps in the setup at move-in. Start furniture planning in Week 8, not Week 4.
Should I move my existing office furniture or buy used at the new space?
The rule of thumb: if the cost to move a piece exceeds its replacement value, replace it. Task chairs almost always move. Cubicle systems almost always get replaced (disassembly and reassembly usually costs more than a matching used system from our used office cubicles inventory). Desks depend on age and condition. Our team handles both sides of that math on the same project.
Do I need to decommission my old office when I move?
Yes. Most commercial leases in Denver require the tenant to return the space with all tenant furniture removed, broom clean. Failing to plan the decommission of the outgoing space results in lease penalties, extra rent, or damage claims. See our Denver decommissioning service for the coordinated scope that runs alongside the move-in.
Can Pear Project handle both the decommission and the new furniture install for a Denver office move?
Yes. Pear Project Services runs the full furniture side of an office move as a single contract: decommission of the outgoing space (with buyback on commercial-grade pieces), delivery and installation of any used office furniture from our Denver warehouse, punch list, and landfill diversion documentation. One vendor, one timeline, one phone number.
How quickly can Pear Project deliver and install furniture at a new Denver office?
Same-week delivery is standard for in-stock used commercial-grade pieces from our Denver warehouse. Larger orders and custom configurations run one to three weeks. This compares to typical new-furniture lead times of six to ten weeks from a commercial dealer, which is often the constraint that pushes an office move timeline. See our office furniture installation service for the full delivery and install scope.
What happens to the furniture I decommission from my old Denver office?
Pieces with resale value (commercial-grade Herman Miller, Steelcase, Haworth, Knoll, and others) return to our Denver warehouse for refurbishment and resale to the next buyer. Usable pieces without immediate resale value route to donation. E-waste goes to a certified processor. Only pieces with no viable disposition go to landfill, typically under 20 percent of a full-floor decommission.
Do I get sustainability documentation for my office move?
Yes. Every Pear Project Services decommission closes with a landfill diversion certificate showing exactly what percentage of the inventory was reused, donated, recycled, or landfilled. This documentation is designed to slot into ESG and sustainability reporting for your building or ownership group.
Can Pear Project help with office moves outside Denver?
Yes. Pear delivers, installs, and decommissions across the Front Range, including Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Greeley, and Loveland. Same team, same trucks, same commercial-grade inventory. Local relocations within the Denver metro are the most common, but Front Range moves run on the same weekly delivery routes.
The Denver Warehouse and the Move Crew Are Ready.
50,000 square feet of used commercial-grade office furniture inventory. Full decommissioning service across the Denver metro and Front Range. Coordinated install for your new space, on the schedule your team actually needs. Book the walkthrough and see the plan in writing.
Or call (303) 351-2259
11100 E. 55th Avenue Suite A, Denver, Colorado 80239