Soooooo, I was doing the quest Pieces of the Past last night. I got to the part where you

Spoiler

kill Signus or whatever that guy's name is and take the Razor, and then those 2 Dremora show up

. As I was trying to snipe one who kept running everywhere, I accidentally hit Lydia and ended up killing her (it seems any Follower I have when I do this quest ALWAYS ends up getting in my way and dying ).

Anyways, so here I am, bogged down with stuff, while Lydia has a lot of my Smithing items as well as several Dragon Scales and Dragon Bones. I also still have to get all the nice loot from the Shrine itself, which means even more crap to carry and more fast travel trips. However, since fast traveling advances the in-game time, I'm a bit worried. If I fast travel too much, would the game end up clearing Lydia's body? I suppose I could alleviate that concern by taking all the stuff from her I want and dropping it on the ground, to come back and get at my leisure, except I'm not sure if the game also cleans up random items just lying on the ground like it does bodies and (most) ash piles.

I'm dabbling in Conjuration and I tried the Reanimate Corpse spell, but stupid Lydia is apparently too strong for it. I probably wouldn't have time to find someone with the Revenant spell, and even if I did I don't think my Conjuration level is high enough to get it. I suppose I could also fast travel somewhere and grab a new Follower, then come back to the Shrine and move all the stuff from Lydia to them. That comes back to the concern that the game would clear her body (or the items themselves if just dropped on the ground) before I got back.

/the items aren't even THAT good, she's just a hoarder in this game

It should be three game days until the bodies are cleaned up, so you could walk to Winterhold, get a follower, and make it back with time to spare(you could also sell a few things at the college or general store there too).

Ah, exactly what I needed to know. Thanks a bunch .

you could also show up with a horse, take everything back, jump on the horse then fast travel to where ever you store all your stuff.

Ah yes, forgot that option. If only I weren't such a miser >_>...

/has nearly 20k Gold

I had an experience when the bodies disappeared a lot quicker than 3 days. Do you have source for your statement? I cleared Halted Stream Camp, then I fast traveled back to Whiterun, then came right back via Fast Travel, and all the dead bodies were gone. I must have been away less than 12 hours.

To the OP, I would recommend that you store stuff you want to save in a container other than a dead body before leaving the area.

And, if you do this, only use Furniture, the chests/barrels can re-spawn. while it should not happen for a certain period of time, I would not risk unique loot. Or, just save before you put anything away to lighten the load for travel. Then make sure you don't Autosave over that.