I've just begun playing it (loving it) and after goong over Riverwood I'm completely encumbered with stuff.

Since i don't yet have a house I was wondering if I can leave things in a barrel and expect it to be there a couple of days later when i come back?
For example leave food ingredients in a barrel close by a cooking pot, alchemy ingredients close by an alchemy table, leather and metal by a blacksmith etc.

Have anyone of you tried this?
Thanks!

No answer

Well now i left everything in a couple of barrels. Hopy they stay safe...

Likely not. Containers that respawn will eat your items in it when that time comes. Best advice to be 100% is to buy one of the houses (cheapest is in Whiterun for 5000), or get a packmule companion.

*SPOILER*

If you buy a house it'll have storage for you.

I can inform you that all my stuff was safely stored in the various barrels on the streets of Riverwood for a very long period of time.

When I had saved up to 5000 gold and gotten the offer to buy the house I took it and moved all my stuff.

On the off chance that some noobies come in here looking for advice, just remember that you can recruit Sven as a companion in Riverwood, and use him as a pack mule early on in the game, until you pick up Lydia or that girl from the Whiterun bar-fight.

best way to find out leave some worthless items and come back a few days later

id keep the valuable stuff on you though

if you need to wait a while just turn on god mode if you play pc ver

If by chance upon joining a guild you received a room, would be able to use the wardrobe?

Yes! That is completely safe.

Is it therefore safe to say that if you became the head of a guild and were given your own quarters that every container in those quarters would be safe?
I have so far tested a chest at the bottom of the bed in the quarters in question by placing an item in the chest and waiting about 80 hours and it was still there.
I was hoping somebody might be able to confirm this would be the case or what the respawning time is in Skyrim, I have read elsewhere that it is 72 hours.
I have deliberately tried my best not to give too much away about whose quarters/which guild.etc

based on an assumption i have about how the game runs, i believe that if you are nearby to the container for the entire 80 hours then the container won't respawn. try moving a distance away so that the area with the container has unloaded and then try waiting.
also, i believe that it's not 72 hrs (if it is 72 hrs, if might be more/less) since being last used, but rather 72 hrs based on a universal ingame clock.
in oblivion i think it was 1 week for containers to respawn and 72 hrs for enemies to repopulate a dungeon, but i could be wrong

Thanks for that. I will fast travel elsewhere tonight and wait for 168+ hours and travel back and see what happens.