TOEIC Link Office Relocation and Move Vocabulary: The Plan-to-Move-In Cluster Behind Part 3 and Part 4
A company outgrows its space, signs a lease on a new office, plans the move, packs and labels everything, moves over a weekend, and then settles in while a few things still need fixing. TOEIC Link keeps returning to office relocation because it is a project with clear phases, plenty of announcements, and fixed phrases, without ever requiring the test-taker to know anything about the actual building. A Part 3 call between a facilities manager and a moving coordinator, a Part 4 all-staff announcement about moving-day logistics, a Part 7 memo pairing a relocation schedule with a follow-up email: all run on the same compact move vocabulary.
This article is the focused relocation and move cluster, organized by the move-project workflow — plan the move, prepare and pack, execute over the changeover, set up the new space, and follow up on loose ends — because that is the sequence ETS uses to build items. Learn the workflow, and you know where the answer sits before you finish reading the question.
Why relocation vocabulary keeps returning
Three structural forces keep this cluster on the test.
Reason 1 — a move is a phased project. Sign the lease, plan the logistics, pack, move, set up, resolve issues — each phase has a clear before-and-after, which gives ETS a clean anchor for sequence questions ("What will happen the weekend of the move?") without any real-estate knowledge.
Reason 2 — moves generate announcements. Staff need to know the date, what to pack, where their new desk is, and when systems go down. That produces exactly the kind of Part 4 monologue and Part 7 memo ETS loves, the same way a facility maintenance and repair request generates structured building-status language for listening items.
Reason 3 — the collocations are fixed. You do not do a move; you relocate to a new office, you pack up your desk, movers load and unload, systems go offline, and the office is up and running afterward. TOEIC Link tests the pairing, not the bare noun — the collocation is the unit of memory.
The cluster, organized by the move-project workflow
Memorize each group as a unit tied to one stage of the workflow.
Stage 1 — planning the move
Before anyone packs, the project is scoped.
- relocate / relocation — moving the office to a new address
- premises — the building and grounds the company occupies
- floor plan — the layout of the new space
- move coordinator — the person managing the logistics
- lease agreement — the contract for the new premises
Stage 2 — preparing and packing
Getting ready for the changeover.
- pack up / box up — put belongings into containers
- label — mark boxes so they reach the right place
- inventory — the list of what is being moved
- declutter / dispose of — get rid of what is not moving
- crate / packing supplies — the materials the move requires
Stage 3 — executing the move
This is where the Part 4 moving-day announcements live.
- moving day / changeover — the day the physical move happens
- movers — the crew that transports everything
- load / unload — put items on and take them off the truck
- downtime / offline — the period when systems are unavailable
- over the weekend — the fixed timeframe most moves use
A vendor negotiation and procurement exchange uses the same scheduling-and-quote language when the company books the moving company, so the two clusters reinforce each other.
Stage 4 — setting up the new space
Getting the office running again.
- set up / install — get furniture and equipment in place
- workstation — the desk-and-equipment unit for each employee
- up and running — fully operational again
- assign seating — decide who sits where
- access badge / keycard — the pass for the new building
Stage 5 — following up
Loose ends after the move.
- punch list — the remaining small tasks to finish
- teething problems — minor issues in the first days
- update the address — change it on records and materials
- settle in — get comfortable in the new space
How ETS turns the workflow into questions
A Part 4 item plays an all-staff announcement: "Please pack up your desk and label every box by Friday evening. The movers will load everything over the weekend, so systems will be offline until Monday morning." The question asks what employees must do before Friday — and the answer is pack and label, because Stage 2 always precedes Stage 3. You do not need to know the building to place the step.
A Part 7 double passage pairs a relocation schedule ("Move: Saturday–Sunday. Network back online: Monday 9 a.m.") with a reply ("Can the design team keep working Monday morning?"). The answer is no, systems are offline until 9 a.m. — readable entirely from the Stage 3 vocabulary (downtime, offline, up and running) without any technical knowledge.
Practice the collocations, not the isolated words
The fastest gain is drilling the fixed pairings until they are automatic: relocate to, pack up, label the boxes, load the truck, systems offline, up and running, settle in. On test day these phrases arrive as single chunks, and recognizing the chunk is what lets you answer before the sentence ends.
Work the relocation cluster as a workflow — plan, pack, move, set up, follow up — and the whole family of moving-day items becomes predictable. The situation is phased, the announcements are structured, and the vocabulary is fixed, which is exactly why ETS keeps coming back to it.