The flurry of last-minute legislative activity before Christmas was hardly the only action in the Capitol on Wednesday.

Members and Capitol tourists traversing the House halls sidestepped movers from the Architect of the Capitol and the Chief Administrative Office at nearly every turn.

Dozens of chairs, tables and desks on their way to Speaker-designate John Boehner’s new office lay behind the Statuary Hall’s tall columns. They were mirrored on the other side of the room by pallets full of folders and files.

The Ohio Republican is moving his office from behind the Rayburn Room into the Speaker’s office in the House’s Small Rotunda. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is taking Boehner’s old office.

The office on the building’s third floor formerly occupied by Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is mostly empty, save a few desks and chairs.

The Rayburn Room’s ornate carpet and wooden walls, meanwhile, were barely visible from beneath boxes of Pelosi’s belongings, including desks, chairs, sofas and ottomans. Workers wheeled slates of other electronics and furniture from the room toward the Speaker’s office.

A large trash bin in the Rayburn Room’s corner held soda cans and other rubbish. Among its contents: a blown-up poster of the May 18, 2009, Time Magazine cover declaring Republicans an endangered species.