Im roleplaying as a wood elf hunter and I was wondering if I place items inside a chest in the basemant of a shack with a trap door will they stay there? The reason I ask is that instead of using the house in Whiterun I would nlike to use a shack or other wilderness structure as my home. There is one I have in mind that is near Falkreath tucked in the woods in the shadow of the Barrow. There is a trapdoor leading to a cellar with an alchemy lab and enchanting altar. Is it possible to store items in the cellar without them being stolen?

I think you're talking about Anise's cabin yes? Has an enchanting and alchemy table down there.

Yes that place is totally safe, I tested it. The barrel upstairs is NOT SAFE though so don't put anything in there.

Also if you have followers, do not let them go into the basemant. They will become unresponsive and continuously tell you to stop trespassing. If they get stuck down there it's a little difficult but not impossible to get them upstairs again.

Yes that is the one im talking about and thanks, perfect place to start got everything I need to get started and a pretty safe location. Thanks again

If the mechanics are the same as previous games you can leave things lying about but you cannot store them in containers.

The mechanics are a little different in this one. I'm still testing it to figure out exactly how, but so far I've found that residences are very random. Some respawn, some dont. Some have partially respawning containers.

Spouse properties I believe have respawning containers, which stop spawning after marriage. Could be the same with a friends property, but it needs more testing.

Dungeons are different, and almost always respawn.

Basic rule of thumb, dungeons take 30 days to respawn, other cells take 10 days.

Kill Anise and take over her cabin, or find the Alchemist's Shack. Both are safe, have beds, and are in wild areas somewhat far from civilization. I use the Alchemist's Shack when I don't have a house.

Where exactly is this location at?

Cheers

It's just a little west of Riverwood, just on the north side of the river.