Ok - so I've just become encumbered for like the 80th time, and I'm a level 6. I don't have the coin to purchase a house.

Can I use random storage to hold my items without losing them? I'm not at the point where I can grind to get enough coin for a house, but I'm sick of having to manage my inventory every time I have encounters. I can't just drop items, because I already dropped most of my non-essential items. I've slayed only 2 dragons, but those damn scales and bones are heavy as crap, but I know how valuable they are.

Can I just dump stuff in a random place and come back for it later? (Anise's house for example...)

Join any guild or faction and they will give you a safe room. Surely there's one you like....

Yes... I'm a "companion" but I didn't know they gave me a room - do you happen to know how I would identify that room?

In the meantime - I'm fighting a dragon right now, solo. I am at Anise's Cabin - can I leave my stuff there so I don't lose it while I trek all the way back to Whiterun?

Compainions are more of "drop where there is an empty bed".

There should be a meeting place in Whiterun somewhere, with beds. Maybe even in another town.

I had good luck in Oblivion with leaving stuff on the ground in the wilderness - just remember your spot!

I'd like to know this too.

In Morrowind, we used to store stuff in any random location. I had squatted a house in Caldera, and it was loaded with tens, if not hunderds of different weapons, armor, gems and other thingies. That was never a problem. But somehow I remember that items could get lost. Maybe that was in Oblivion ? Maybe that was if you did something weird in Morrowind ?

I don't want to buy one of the available houses. Not yet. I can't pick which one to buy first, because I've only seen 2 cities so far.

There is a nice abandoned house in Mixwater Mill !
It used to belong to the workers of the Mill. But the owner, a woman called Gilfre, said that all workers have left the Mill. The house for the workers is empty. When you look inside the house, the beds are not owned. I would say that gameplay-wise, it would be safe to take camp in that house. Now the question is: would it be safe technically too ? I like the place. I don't mind making it my base camp for a while.

So does anyone know ? Do I run a risk losing the stuff that I store there ?

I stored all my stuff in a chest at the inn in Morthal until I had a house. Nothing ever disappeared.

If you drop things somewhere in the world, they will not be safe.

Part of the Radiant Story allows NPCs to pick things up (though, they did this in Oblivion too) but can also cause events.

Drop a sword in town and a kid might bring it back to you asking if you dropped it.

Drop a diamond in a bar and the patrons might begin fighting over it.

I dropped a bunch of stuff that was pretty worthless but weighing me down in a store; I came back later and the shop keeper had made them part of his inventory.

Companion i.e. lydia = pack mule

I have the official game guide and it says that one of the advantages to joining the thieves guild is that you can drop your equipment in chests in the Cistern without the worry of it being lost. The Cistern is where the Thieves guild master Mercer Frey is. You will be able to go there after you meet Brynjolf in the Ragged Flagon. You can activate this guild earlier than the Main Quest: A cornered rat, by entering Riften at any time and talking to Brynjolf who, I believe at the time, is wearing rich/nice clothes in the marketplace and asks you to do a favor by stealing a silver ring from Madesi's stall.

I have not done the companion quest, but in the College of Magic, they assign you a room with storage. Its pretty slick.

I presume each guild will have something like that.

I could experiment with an odd cleared out location, but things seem to come back to spots sooner in this game.

This. When I got Lydia I told her to sit still in Dragonsreach and I've been unloading my junk on her... okay, I probably could have worded that better. >.>

How large is her inventory? Does she have a limit to the crap that I can leave with her? And there's no way she goes rogue with all that crap right?

how do you get lydia as a companion?

Follow the story line long enough and you'll get a small HQ in riverwood thats all im going to say ^^; and its not like you'll have to put a ungodly amount of time into it...but yeah, until then grab a companion theres a few of them..I did a easy enough quest and grabbed a mage companion (lydia kept running from the fight!!) so far i'm enjoying having a mage-mule ^^

They give her to you after you ask them to join, or after you finish the quest for them.

I don't remember exactly what I had to do, but after I did, they let her be my housecarl or something like that.

Lydia is the answer, she can carry unlimited i think, because i keep filling her with new stuff, and she never complain.

She also return to your house in Whiterun, if left waiting for to long, so you can unload her there.

Well I dumped all my junk in the compnaions living room, in a cupboard where vilkas tells you to get sleep, didn't lose my stuff til i got a house 5 levels later.

Nah I maxed her out..(12 or 13 dragon bones, 15 dragon scales, orcish great sword and about 6 other heavy dwarven items)

I'm currently with the Companions as well. There are chests throughout Jorrvaskr (their headquarters) where it's safe to stow goods. I haven't had anything disappear yet.

Well then! Let's just say she carry a lot, i am supriced i havn't maxed her out, at Lv 35 and finding bucket loads of stuff.

Too risky

"Yet" is the key word here.

I'm not willing to sell them because all my prices are crap right now, and I know I'll need them later for smithing/crafting.

I just don't want to take a chance...

I'm talking myself into buying a house, aren't I?

(please no one tell me that your house can be robbed...)

But I don't want to buy a house.
And I don't want to join a faction.
And I don't want companions.

Yet. Maybe later.
This is a RPG. So I'm allowed to play the character that I'd like to play. And that character is a bit shy, and doesn't trust people. Unless she has a better understanding of the world around her. And that might take a while.So no alliances, no companions, no home, no nothing at first. Just looking around. And doing stuff that doesn't tie me down.

I put some stuff in the worker's house in the Mixwater Mill. I took a leap of faith. Let's hope I won't lose anything important.
And if I do, I'll just use console commands to get some of it back.

? What are "console commands" ? Is that a PC thing?