So, I'm doing another playthrough and I've got it into my head that I want to buy the house in Solitude this time around. I want this to be my base and to get it asap. Costs a lot of money however, so I'm saving at the moment with nowhere to store my loot and those dragonbones are getting heavy. I thought there might be some safe place in the guilds, especially the mage's college, where you get a room but I'm afraid to dump my hard earned stuff there only to come back for it to have vanished. Does anyone know of any chests where you can safely store your stuff before you buy a house?

Im not really sure. I want to get the Proudspire Manor and I have 10k saved up. To fix this problem I just got married to the girl at Riverwood Trader.

It might be quicker to buy the cheapest house and use for temp storage, get married to get a shop going and loot like there is no tomorrow. Smith/improve all of your weapons and armor before selling and don't buy anything until you get to 25K.

I did the Companions questline first and used bed-side cupboard in Kodlak's room (which I assumed was now mine) to store some dragonscales. They were still there when I finally got a house and decided to move my stuff into it.