I would dearly love to remove all of the accumulated weighty items from my inventory that are permanently residing there from old completed (or even ongoing) quests. The weight keeps adding up; drum, flute, unusual gems to name a few. it is bad enough for items I lug around because I use them, but stuff I don't use, I really don't want a weight penalty for-especially since I have no choice in the matter.Also there are many quests that I have completed that won't get out of my journal. I know I have completed them (if I try them again they won't work or they will but still remain in the list) but the little diamond will not fill in and they remain in my misc quest list. Irritating, to say the least!

I thought that quest items don't weigh anything?

They dont.

most everyone hates undroppable items and essentials but beth refuses to do anything about them

The reason we have essential npcs is because everyone would complain when they can't get a certain quest because they accidentally killed the quest giver 10 hours ago. It would also cause you to be unable to complete guild questlines if someone managed to die.

it worked in NV, but, there is a few annoying beasties in skyrim that could cause some trouble, the AI should get better before making it possible for a random dragon to pass by and kill them. maybe just let the player kill them, if they screw up and killed someone important then it is their own damn fault for being stupid about murder

I don't want to kill quest givers. I just don't want to carry around the spoils of the quests (and I want them off of my current quests in Journal). I want to store them-somewhere.
They have a weight designation listed on the damage-weight-value scale.

What I would like to see is a container in the player home specifically for quest items.
That would solve a lot.

The quest items do show a weight in your inventory and the ones you can keep after the quest ends then get that weight. (Usually.)
However, they have no actual weight while they are quest items.
Test this by emptying your entire inventory except your quest items in a container.
You will notice you have zero encumbrance.

But when you pick them up a script runs, which gives them zero weight until the quest is complete and the thing is handed over. If you then buy/steal/take the object back it now has weight, but not until it removed from your inventory the first time. If the object is never removed (like the bard stuff) then weight remains zero.

The worse thing with some of those quests is that it is bugged and you can't get rid of the damn drum or lute for that [censored] in the college or anywhere.

This is true for most items but according to the UESP, some quest items like the grand staff of charming actually have weight. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Onmund I don't know if this is true or an error in the UESP, but I am going to try to remember to check this weekend since one of my characters has that darned staff stuck in his inventory. It is kind of a pain to empty out your entire inventory which is why I have not tested it yet.