Top Law Schools

Ok, it's early to be thinking about this but I'm trying to plan out my move from Columbus, Ohio to Charlottesville in August. I did a quote thing for Uhaul and it was over 500 bucks to rent a truck to move my life to Virginia. Is there a cheaper alternative to Uhaul out there? How did you move to your institution of legal learning? Thanks again, TLS, I know you won't let me down

I hate to say it but Uhaul is probably your best way to go. Get the insurance for a couple extra bucks and call it a day. I have used them for 3 moves (from Montana to GA, GA to KY, and once more within the state of KY).

Here's a secret...they can extend the amount of time you get your rental for free. Simply tell them that you are concerned about having to drive too much in one day and they will add on a couple extra days. That could give you extra time to pack/unpack.

Also, the size of what you are renting really changes the price. A pull behind trailer is really cheap whereas the big diesel truck can be pretty pricey. What size are you needing? Are you pulling a car?

You can look into getting a one-way minivan rental for about $200-$250. With the 3rd row folded down, that should hold all your stuff including a couple of pieces of furniture.

When I moved for LS, it would have cost me MORE to use a UHaul instead of hiring an actual moving company. Now, I had less than 2,000 lbs. of stuff which is furniture for a SMALL 1-bedroom, but still. It only cost me $1200, and they did all of the moving. A UHaul would have cost me $2000 and I would have had to drive that bitch across 1/2 the country.

annapavlova wrote:When I moved for LS, it would have cost me MORE to use a UHaul instead of hiring an actual moving company. Now, I had less than 2,000 lbs. of stuff which is furniture for a SMALL 1-bedroom, but still. It only cost me $1200, and they did all of the moving. A UHaul would have cost me $2000 and I would have had to drive that bitch across 1/2 the country.

Yeah, my family paid around $4,000-$5,000 for a moving company to haul an entire trailer filled with stuff from a 2500+ sq ft house, from the West Coast to the Midwest. We had to load and unload the trailer ourselves, though.

I've found that Budget is usually priced better than U-Haul. The trucks aren't quite as nice, but the difference is negligible.

I'm pretty sure that price is much cheaper if you can manage to return the truck to the location you rented it from rather than dropping it off in your new state. Though usually if you need a truck you aren't in a position to return it.

Hooking a uhaul trailer up to my pickup and driving cross country was the cheapest thing I found. Best advice I got was to get rid of as much of your junk that you can, you have the rest of your life to accumulate new junk (and the rest of your life will hopefully be very different after law school).

Thanks for the input everyone!

unless you have high quality stuff (probably not as a young person) you should craigslist it all (furniture etc) and then drive your car/have someone else drive you with your essentials like computer, clothes, and whatnot. then it will be free, and you can buy massive amounts of IKEA stuff in virginia.

you can do the same thing when you move for your job (just sell/junk the IKEA stuff and buy in new location).

this strategy has worked out for me, and I have moved 5 times in the last 5 years (unfortunately!)

englawyer wrote:unless you have high quality stuff (probably not as a young person) you should craigslist it all (furniture etc) and then drive your car/have someone else drive you with your essentials like computer, clothes, and whatnot. then it will be free, and you can buy massive amounts of IKEA stuff in virginia.

you can do the same thing when you move for your job (just sell/junk the IKEA stuff and buy in new location).

this strategy has worked out for me, and I have moved 5 times in the last 5 years (unfortunately!)

+1

I don't intend to bring much other than clothing, my computer, and random small electronics.

englawyer wrote:unless you have high quality stuff (probably not as a young person) you should craigslist it all (furniture etc) and then drive your car/have someone else drive you with your essentials like computer, clothes, and whatnot. then it will be free, and you can buy massive amounts of IKEA stuff in virginia.

you can do the same thing when you move for your job (just sell/junk the IKEA stuff and buy in new location).

this strategy has worked out for me, and I have moved 5 times in the last 5 years (unfortunately!)

Englawer is right. Sell as much as you can, give away the rest, and go to Ikea when you get to VA. There's one in Woodbridge and probably one closer to C-Ville.

I used MiniMoves going to Boston from Seattle for UG. They are full service, but cost less because they ship your small stuff in with someone else's whole house full that doesn't completely fill the truck (I think). It takes an extra week or so because of combining loads, timing. But it worked for me.

If it's the larger stuff you're concerned about, like furniture, you could use Craigslist to find that cheaply in and around Charlottesville so that it would be much easier to move. Then the smaller stuff would be much more manageable with a couple pieces of your favorite larger items in tow as well. Just a thought!

My biggest thing is my motorcycle. I want to bring it real bad. If I ride it there I don't have a way to bring the rest of my ish. Thats why I was thinking of just getting a rental truck from a Uhaul type place and stashing it in there with a few other things

TipTravHoot wrote:I've found that Budget is usually priced better than U-Haul. The trucks aren't quite as nice, but the difference is negligible.

i moved from NJ to FL and back and budget was far cheaper than anything else i found both times, plus you can usually find some coupons for them online.

I'll probably be moving 1000+ miles for law school, so I'll move my stuff using Pods. Driving that far in a U-Haul would be an expensive nightmare.

Doritos wrote:Ok, it's early to be thinking about this but I'm trying to plan out my move from Columbus, Ohio to Charlottesville in August. I did a quote thing for Uhaul and it was over 500 bucks to rent a truck to move my life to Virginia. Is there a cheaper alternative to Uhaul out there? How did you move to your institution of legal learning? Thanks again, TLS, I know you won't let me down

Uhaul may be your cheapest bet but I would hope you consider ANY other trucking company. Budget truck may be a good alternative. I last used Uhaul a few years ago and they randomly decided to change the date and time of my rental from a Saturday to a Sunday. I was never informed of this until I showed up to pick up the truck after having a friend drive in from out of town to help me move. When I asked them why they didn't inform me they said that they TEXTED me on a phone number that was a house phone!!! Guess what Uhaul...house phones don't have text messaging capabilities

Since this experience I have vowed to NEVER use Uhaul again and to share this story with as many other people as possible. I have since used http://www.budgettruck.com/ and had very good success with them.

Good Luck!

Thanks nic I just did a quote with Budget and they are significantly cheaper than Uhaul. By like 200 dollars!

JOThompson wrote:

englawyer wrote:unless you have high quality stuff (probably not as a young person) you should craigslist it all (furniture etc) and then drive your car/have someone else drive you with your essentials like computer, clothes, and whatnot. then it will be free, and you can buy massive amounts of IKEA stuff in virginia.

you can do the same thing when you move for your job (just sell/junk the IKEA stuff and buy in new location).

this strategy has worked out for me, and I have moved 5 times in the last 5 years (unfortunately!)

+1

I don't intend to bring much other than clothing, my computer, and random small electronics.

i sold everything i had aquired, except for computer and clothes...