Office move crate hire in Sydney
Almost every commercial move in Sydney runs on plastic crates rather than cardboard, and for good reason: a floor of desks generates an absurd amount of carton, tape and rubbish, and somebody has to deal with all of it on the Monday morning when everyone wants to be working.
We deliver crates to offices from the Harbour Bridge up to Palm Beach, with North Sydney, Crows Nest, St Leonards and Chatswood the ones we see most. Tell us the desk count and the date and we will work backwards from there.
Why crates rather than boxes
One crate, one desk, one label
Crates arrive with a label card on each one. Number them by desk or by person and unpacking becomes distribution rather than a treasure hunt. Cardboard cartons collapse, get restacked and lose their labels in the truck.
Nothing to build and nothing to throw away
No taping down bases at 4pm on a Friday, and no skip full of flattened carton on Monday. We take the crates away when you are done.
They stack square in a lift
Five high on a dolly, straight into the service lift, straight onto the floor. In a commercial building where the lift is booked by the hour, that is the difference between one booking and two.
Lids that stay shut
Attached lids mean personnel files, client records and someone's desk drawer stay closed between the old office and the new one.
How many crates will you need?
Offices size by desk, not by room. As a rough start, allow five crates per desk, then add for the parts of an office nobody counts.
4 to 6 crates per desk
2 to 3 crates per cabinet
3 to 6 crates per room
6 to 10 crates per kitchen
4 to 8 crates per room
5 to 15 crates per storeroom
4 to 8 crates per reception
About 80 crates
Your answers come to 58 to 101 crates. We have rounded up to 80, because running short on the day costs more than a spare crate does.
$266
inc GST, dolly included. Two weeks of hire, delivery and collection included.
Book 80 cratesA ten-desk office usually lands between 60 and 80 crates once the kitchen and the storeroom are in. If you are between two numbers, take the higher one: an unused crate costs a couple of dollars, a second trip costs an afternoon.
When should the crates arrive?
Two or three days before the move, not the morning of it. People pack their own desks in the gaps between meetings, and that takes longer than anyone plans for. Crates sitting in the breakout room on a Wednesday get filled by Friday.
We deliver seven days a week from 6am to 8pm, so an early weekday drop before the floor fills up is usually the easiest. Say so when you book and we will take the first window.
The building is the hard part, not the packing
Commercial buildings are stricter than homes. Most want the service lift booked in advance, many restrict moves to outside business hours, and some ask for a certificate of currency from anyone working in the building.
Sort that before you book anything else. The lift window decides the truck time, and the truck time decides when the crates need to be there and when they can come back.
- Book the service lift, and ask how long you actually get
- Check the loading dock height against your removalist's truck
- Ask building management what hours a move is allowed
- Find out whether the new building needs its own approvals, which is easy to forget
What not to put in a crate
Monitors and workstations travel better in purpose-made IT cartons with foam, and most commercial removalists bring them. Keep crates for what they are good at: paper, personal effects, kitchen, stationery, cables and the contents of drawers.
Anything confidential can be sealed with a numbered tag through the lid catch if your move needs a chain of custody. Ask us and we will send crates with the catches free.
If the move runs over a fortnight
Two weeks covers most office moves comfortably: crates out on the Wednesday, move on the Saturday, unpacked through the following week. Occasionally a staged move or a fit-out slips a few days past that.
Add an extra week at checkout for $1.50 a crate, or email us before the collection date. If the unpacking is going to take much longer than that, the better plan is usually to hand the crates back and book a second short hire when you need them, rather than leaving them stacked full for a month.
Packs that suit this job
Studio Stash
25 crates
$109
A studio, a one-bedroom flat or a small office
Two-Bedder
50 crates
$189
A two-bedroom home or a small office
Family Burrow
75 crates
$249
A three-bedroom home or a mid-size office
Big Burrow
100 crates
$309
A four-bedroom home, or a whole office floor
Common questions
How many crates do I need for an office move?
Allow about five crates per desk as a starting point, then add for the kitchen, the comms room, filing and the storeroom. A ten-desk office typically needs 60 to 80 crates; a floor of 25 desks is usually 150 to 200. Tell us the desk count and we will size it with you.
Can you deliver crates to an office on a weekday?
Yes. We deliver seven days a week between 6am and 8pm in two-hour windows, so an early weekday drop before the office fills up is straightforward. Weekday delivery for a weekend move is the most common pattern we see.
Can we hire crates for longer than two weeks?
A week or two at a time, yes. Extra weeks are $1.50 a crate, added at checkout or by email before your collection date. For anything longer we would rather collect and bring crates back when you need them again, so they are not sitting full in a corner for a month.
Do you invoice businesses?
Booking online takes card payment through Stripe. If your accounts team needs an invoice or a purchase order reference, email hello@wombatcrates.com before you book and we will sort out the paperwork.
Can crates be labelled by desk or by person?
Every crate arrives with a label card in the holder on the end. Number them by desk, by person or by department and unpacking at the other end becomes handing crates out rather than opening them to find out what is inside.
Are the crates secure enough for confidential files?
The lids clip shut and stay shut, which is already better than a taped carton. If your move needs a chain of custody, ask for crates with the lid catches free and you can run a numbered security tag through them.
Do you deliver to offices outside the North Shore?
We cover Sydney's North Shore and Northern Beaches, from the Harbour Bridge up to Palm Beach. That takes in North Sydney, Crows Nest, St Leonards, Chatswood, Brookvale and Frenchs Forest. If you are just outside, ring us and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.
Crates for other jobs
- Renovations
Pack the kitchen away and live around the trades, without dust in everything.
- Storage runs
For the run into the unit and the run back out.
- Selling and downsizing
Box up the excess before the photographer arrives.
Crates from $25, delivered free
Two weeks included, no bond, seven days a week from the Harbour Bridge to Palm Beach.