How to Move Your Home Office - Monitors, Standing Desks and Cables.

The home office is the room that trips people up more often than the kitchen. Across the Northern Beaches, North Sydney, and the North Shore corridor, working from home is now the norm rather than the exception - and the home office has become one of the most equipment-heavy rooms in the house. The volume looks small - a desk, a chair, some equipment - but the combination of fragile screens, complex cable setups, specialist furniture, and equipment that genuinely cannot be handled carelessly makes it one of the most specific rooms to move properly.

Photograph everything before you unplug anything

This is the single most useful thing you can do before the home office gets touched. Take photos of the cable setup at the back of every device - monitor, computer, speakers, docking station, network switch. Take a photo of how the cables run under the desk. Take a photo of how the monitor arm is positioned. Take a photo of the desk height setting on any electric standing desk.

You will not remember how any of this was set up when you are standing in a new room three days later trying to get back to work. The photos take five minutes and save hours.

Monitors - never flat, never stacked

Monitors are not designed to take weight on their screens. Stacking anything on top of a face-down monitor is a common cause of screen damage in transit - the pressure on the panel from above can damage the LCD layer beneath the glass. Every monitor should travel either in its original box if you kept it, or wrapped in moving blankets and secured vertically in the truck.

For large monitors and curved screens this is particularly important. The panel is under more structural stress without vertical support, and any sustained pressure on the face risks permanent damage. Monitor arms should be removed from the desk before moving and the arm and monitor can travel as separate pieces. Reassembly at the other end is straightforward.

Standing desks - heavier and more complex than they look

Electric standing desks contain motors in the legs, wiring in the frame, and control panels that can be damaged by rough handling. Most are designed to disassemble for transport - the desktop separates from the frame and the legs retract to a compact position.

Before disassembly, lower the desk to its lowest position and power it off. Photograph the cable routing underneath before removing anything. Disconnect everything from the desk surface before trying to lift or move it. The desktop on a large standing desk weighs 30 to 40 kilograms on its own - this is a two-person carry minimum and should not be attempted alone.

If your standing desk has a cable tray or routing system underneath, photograph that separately. Reconnecting a well-organised cable system from a photo takes minutes. Reconnecting it from memory in a new room under time pressure is a significantly less enjoyable experience.

Computers and external drives

Desktop computers travel best in their original packaging. If you no longer have it, wrap the tower in moving blankets and transport it upright rather than on its side - components are designed to be oriented vertically. Back up any important data on desktop hard drives before the move rather than relying on a spinning drive to survive a long journey undamaged. External hard drives and SSDs are more resilient than internal spinning drives but should travel in a padded bag or box rather than loose in a crate.

Label every external drive clearly. An unlabelled drive that ends up in a mixed box during a move is surprisingly difficult to find afterwards.

Cables - label both ends before you disconnect anything

Label both ends of every cable before you touch it. Masking tape and a permanent marker is all you need. Monitor cable - office - HDMI 1. USB hub - desk. Power - standing desk. Every cable. When you are reconnecting everything in a new room under time pressure, unlabelled cables from a box will cost you 45 minutes and considerable frustration.

Bundle cables by the device they belong to and keep each bundle together with a cable tie or rubber band. Cables that belong to the monitor stay with the monitor. Cables that belong to the desktop stay with the desktop. One bag for all cables from all devices is the approach that produces the worst outcome at the other end.

What Billy and Jet do

We treat home office equipment the same way we treat any fragile item - it goes on top of the load, it travels padded and protected, and screens travel in a way that keeps pressure off the panels. We flag if we think something needs its original packaging rather than just a moving blanket. We do not rush items that need care.

If you are working from home and need to be operational quickly after the move, tell us during quoting. We can sequence the load so the office equipment comes off the truck first and you can get set up before the rest of the house is unpacked. Get in touch on 0466 705 078, get a free quote online, or read about our Sydney home removals service. Also worth reading: our room-by-room packing guide and what to expect on moving day.

Frequently asked questions