Austin offices are on the move. Jackson Walker is relocating its Austin office to more than 110,000 square feet at The Republic downtown in spring 2028. Indeed listed all 308,000 square feet of Indeed Tower for sublease in October 2026 so it can bring its staff together at The Domain. PwC and Weaver and Tidwell have taken sublease space at Sixth and Guadalupe. Across the market, Class A buildings gained 218,502 square feet of occupied space in the third quarter of 2026 while Class B buildings lost 96,750, according to Partners Real Estate, as companies trade up to newer space.
Every one of those moves leaves something behind: a storage room of old laptops, a stack of desktops nobody wants to pack, and a server rack in a closet that the new building does not have room for. Those machines still hold company data, and they have to be gone before you hand back the keys.
This guide walks through how to retire your old computers during an office move or lease exit in Austin, whether you have 50 laptops or 500.
Why old computers get in the way of a move
Old equipment causes three problems during a move:
Movers charge to move it. Paying to pack and carry laptops you will never use again costs money twice, once to move them and again to get rid of them at the new office.
It holds your data. Every laptop, desktop and server drive carries client files, email and saved passwords. A device left in a closet or thrown in a dumpster during the last week of a lease is a data breach waiting to happen.
Your lease likely requires the space to be cleared. Equipment left behind after move-out can turn into a cleanup charge from the landlord.
Start 60 days out: decide what moves and what retires
Two months before move day, walk the office with your IT lead and sort every device into one of two groups: equipment that moves to the new space and equipment that retires. Laptops past their refresh cycle, desktops being replaced by laptops, monitors that do not match the new setup and servers being moved to the cloud usually belong in the second group.
For everything that retires, start an inventory with the device type, serial number and assigned user. That list is the start of your audit trail. Our guide to retiring company laptops in bulk with a full audit trail covers what to record for each device.
How long it takes to retire 50, 100 or 500 laptops
The size of the job changes how much planning it needs, not whether it can be done before move day.
50 laptops: usually one storage room and one pickup. Send the equipment list, pick a date in the week before the movers, and you are done. At 50 laptops or desktops, pickup is at no cost.
100 laptops: still one pickup, but the inventory takes longer. Collect laptops from departing and remote employees early so the count is complete when the truck arrives.
500 laptops: plan it as its own project inside the move. Collect devices floor by floor or department by department, and match the inventory to your asset records before pickup day. We handle retirements of 500 laptops or more as a single project, with a serialized certificate of destruction for each data-bearing device and a complete asset inventory report.
Whatever the size, schedule the pickup for before the movers arrive. Equipment that leaves first never gets packed, moved or forgotten.
Protect your data before anything leaves the building
Data destruction is the step that matters most and the one that gets rushed most often in the last week of a move. A few rules keep it under control:
Release devices from Active Directory registration before pickup, so the drives can be fully wiped.
Ask for NIST 800-88 data sanitization. NIST 800-88 is the federal guideline used by government agencies and regulated industries, and it specifies three categories of sanitization: Clear, Purge and Destroy.
Get a serialized certificate of destruction. A certificate that lists each device by serial number lets you match it line by line against your inventory, which is what auditors and examiners ask to see. Banks, credit unions and investment firms can find more on what examiners expect on our financial services computer recycling page.
Plan for the server room
The server room is usually the last thing packed and the first thing forgotten. If your company is moving workloads to the cloud as part of the move, the old servers, racks and backup drives all need to go, and every drive in them needs the same data destruction as your laptops. Several server racks qualify for pickup at no cost on their own, and they can go out in the same pickup as your laptops.
Donate instead of paying to haul
A laptop that is three or four years old is too slow for your team but still useful to a student. Working computers we collect are refurbished and donated to local charities, used to train high school students for IT careers, or resold to fund that program. Anything that cannot be reused is recycled by an R2 certified partner under our zero-landfill policy, and you receive a carbon reduction receipt for the equipment you retire. Read more on our Austin laptop recycling and donation page.
An office move checklist for IT
Sort every device into “moves” and “retires” about 60 days before move day.
Build the retirement inventory: device type, serial number and assigned user.
Collect laptops from departing and remote employees.
Release devices from Active Directory registration.
Schedule the pickup for the week before the movers.
Match the serialized certificate of destruction against your inventory and file both with your move records.
How Triangle Ecycling handles office move pickups in Austin
Triangle Ecycling picks up bulk lots of 50 or more laptops or desktops, or several server racks, at no cost to Austin companies. We respond within 1 hour during business hours, and corporate pickups can usually be scheduled within 3 days. Smaller or older loads can still be picked up for a fee, quoted from photos.
If your company is moving within downtown or the Southwest Parkway corridor, see our pages for corporate computer recycling in downtown Austin and corporate computer recycling in Southwest Austin, or our main Austin corporate computer recycling page for the rest of the metro.
Moving soon? Call 919-414-3041 or request a corporate pickup with your equipment list and move dates.
Frequently asked questions
Can you pick up our old laptops during an office move?
Yes. Send us a list of the equipment and your move dates, and our logistics team will schedule a pickup that clears the old laptops, desktops and servers out before the movers arrive. Pickup is at no cost for 50 or more laptops or desktops, or several server racks.
How far ahead of our move should we schedule the computer pickup?
Call as soon as you know your move dates. Corporate pickups in the Austin area can usually be scheduled within 3 days of your request, but booking early lets you plan the pickup for the week before the movers, so the old equipment never gets packed, moved or left behind.
We are retiring 500 laptops in the move. Can you take them all at once?
Yes. We handle retirements of 500 laptops or more as a single project. Every data-bearing device gets NIST 800-88 data destruction and a serialized certificate of destruction, and you receive a complete asset inventory report, so the size of the job does not change the paperwork.
What if we only have 30 old computers to get rid of before the move?
Smaller or older loads can still be picked up for a fee, quoted from photos based on the equipment’s value and the cost of pickup and recycling. Call 919-414-3041 for a quote.
Do we need to wipe the laptops before you pick them up?
No. Send us a list of the equipment and release the devices from Active Directory registration so we can thoroughly destroy all data. We apply NIST 800-88 data sanitization to every storage device, and devices that cannot be wiped are physically destroyed by our certified recycling partner.
What should we do with the server room when we leave?
Servers, server racks and the drives inside them can go out in the same pickup as your laptops. Several server racks qualify for pickup at no cost on their own, and every drive is handled to the same NIST 800-88 standard with a serialized certificate of destruction.