I know I am going to feel silly and the the aqnswer is simple but.... how do I give items to my companion(s) to carry for me. I am overloaded but I do not want to disguard some of this stuff.

You just talk to them, it will be an option.

Hmmmm, I tried that but did not see it. OK as long as I know that is the way I will look again and see if there is a situation that is keeping me from doing that.
Thanks for the quick reply.

Some guys will follow you around, but not be a follower. If they don't give you the option to "wait here" or 'part ways' then they aren't a follower (yet). Which follower do you have?

OK, you gave me the info to look further.
My companion is Lydia, when I spoke to her earlier I did not ask her any questions. Knowing that speaking to her was the way to transfer items I asked her a question and once she answered the option to give her items to carry came up.
Thanks!!!!

a tip is if they are overburdened and cant take anymore stuff from you you can start dropping stuff on the ground and using the "i need you to do something for me" chat option to order them to pick them up off the ground and essentially make them an unlimited carrying machine.

but beware, i once made lydia pick up 240 iron daggers and 212 hide bracer and when i got where i was going she somehow only had 1 of each in her inventory :/

When you drop items in bulk, and they stuck, the companion picks up "one" item. Make sure you drop the items one by one, the the companion pick them up une by one.

Be careful with this mechanic. I used it and when she reached her carry-capacity, while she carried it, became flagged as stolen. I've got a fair number of things I enchanted that are now marked "stolen" and I can't sell them until I work my speech up (as I'm refusing to join the thieves guild).

Frankly, if you're gonna cheat the weight limit, nab a mod that gives you 10x the carry capacity for each stamina improvement -- safer and accomplishes pretty much the same thing.

If, however, you're on a console and can't use mods, well, (I so need a good evil-grin smiley) get a PC, ya know, a real gaming machine

(After saying that, I wonder if I'll live long enough to read the thread again...)

what companion do you have?

do you have the 'i need to trade some gear with you', option?

There are fences available outside the Thieves Guild. I use the one in the College of Winterhold all the time (sometimes you find him at the inn in Winterhold instead, but I don't think he'll fence for you unless you're in the College or until you get to a certain point in the Thieves Guild questline), and there are others as well.

Also, if you're on PC you don't even need any installed mod to change carry weight. Just typing "modav carryweight x" works fine (x being whatever number you want to increase your carry weight by).

Thanks everyone, this is all good information.
I obviously play games only on a PC as my biggest kick is to get the game running all maxed out across three screens at high fps. (those of you that play on consoles who do not know, surround shows much more than just playing om one big screen). so now that I have my surround working etc I actually have to learn to play the game
Thanks again, this was very helpful.