I have my fingers crossed and have prayed to all appropriate authorities that I’ll get into UC Davis for grad school for next fall. I live in Lowell, which is just outside Boston, MA. This means packing up my entire life and moving 3500 miles from the only place I’ve ever lived. I’m budgeting my life for the time between now and moving day, but for the life of me, I don’t know how one goes about moving cross country. Between me and the guy I’m going to live with, we have somewhere between a studio apartment and a 1 bedroom apartment filled with stuff. What is the cheapest and easiest way to make said move? I do have a car, but I’m planning on buying a newer one (it’s a 1992 with more rust that paint) when I get there. We both have drivers licences and my brother and father have both volunteered to help. Any suggestions?
I did just the opposite a few years ago, moving from the west coast to Boston. My son and I filled up the back of our truck with all of our “treasures” we couldn’t live without, and then bought everything else once we got here. I’d advise you, unless you have a lot invested in your furniture, to just leave it behind and replace it when you get there. As students, I’m going to assume you don’t have a huge budget or extremely discriminating taste in furnishings. You’ll find in California that there is an abundance of thrift stores, where decent furniture can be found for pennies on the dollar. If you find you have more things that you must take than will fit in your car, rent a truck from Ryder or some such. I’d advise against U-Haul as numerous posters here seem to have had very negative experiences with them. If you have a great deal of books, you might want to look into shipping those via parcel post through the post office, if it will save the cost of a truck rental.
Davis isn’t too terribly far from an Ikea, either.
I live in Davis as a student.
How much stuff are you moving? I’m thinking a one way trip in a uhaul will be very very expensive. Uhaul’s website quotes me 1.6 grand for the smallest truck and 450 more dollars for gas assuming 20 miles/gallon @ 2.50/gal(which the uhaul probably doesn’t get). However I once found someone in the uhaul forums who moved from L.a to Davis and we were able to work out a deal where he drove me and my stuff up. Depending on how much stuff you have your best bet is a friend with a truck.
For cheap furniture options you can check one of davis’ 5 thrift stores(more in the surrounding cities). I got a decent non-butt ugly 2 seater couch for 40 bucks.
If you’re truely frugal on move out day (generally nov. 30, sept 1) one can roll around the streets of davis and find all sorts of furniture people are just throwing away. I know more then one person who has furnished their entire apartment this way(and well I might add).
www.Craigslist.com is also a good resource for good cheap furniture sold by local parties.
Ikea is 70 miles away or so. A bit too far for my tastes. Especially since I don’t have a big truck to haul everything back.
That said. Davis is a boring boring place for a city boy like me. Everything closes at 9 except for a few restaurants. Theres two places in town to play pool, the bars, and the MU(memorial union of UCD) games area. People are friendly here(compared to L.a). Making friends is pretty easy.
ABF U-Pack-It seems to be a great resource for long haul moves–I’ve had two friends use it to move cross-country, and both were really pleased with their experiences. Basically, they drop a semi trailer off at your house, you pack it and pay by the linear foot, they drive it, drop it off at your destination, and you unpack. No driving a huge truck, and it’s much cheaper than U-Haul.
As for Davis, I was an undergrad there, and haven’t been back for a little over a year. Be sure to stop at Murder Burger and have an ostrich burger, some onion rings, and a shake for me 
. It took nearly a year for the withdrawals to subside…
Murder burger is now redrum(murder backward!) burger. No idea why. It might be the old-folk locals voting for stupid ordinances again.
Oh, I know. It was changed my… third year? My brain just refuses to remember it as anything but Murder Burger. It was changed because supposedly during the rash of school shootings, their sales dropped something like 20%. Or so I’m told. That may or may not bear any resemblance to the reality of why it was changed, who knows–that’s just what I remember reading in the Aggie at the time.