Does anyone actually use all 5 homes, or do you favor one over all others?

My fav is Breezhome in Whiterun. Location, Location, Location easy access and lot of stores close by.
second for me is Honeyside in Riftin but the majority of me loot is kept in whiterun seperated in every drawer, chest, dresser I have in the place
from weapons and sheilds to gems and diamonds. even a nightstand for my helments and hats.

I also have all the Unique items out on display from bugs in jars to moddle ships.

anyone else put this much into there home?

Solitude, Riften, WhiteRun, Markarth, and where else? Where is the other home?

I prefer WhiteRun as well. But the others are cool to go to when I am in the area.

My favorite home is in Whiterun as well, although Belthor died from an unknown cause, I need to go to a far away shop to sell items...

But I like the community, it's friendly and safe, unlike Riften where it's home to the Thiefs.

Windhelm is the last of you list my friend

On this character I bought all 5 homes, mostly so I would know what homes to buy on future plays. Of course, being the person that I am, I drop stuff in various houses in various chests as I go along. So, now I spend time looking for things I know I have, things I think I have and looking for things that I don't think I have, but want to make sure that I have or don't have.

Next character gets one home. I may buy the others for certain quests, but not to decorate or upgrade or live in.

My Whiterun house is STOCKED. I like it the most too. I have my Solitude home fully furnished, with a few things inside. But I visit my Whiterun home more. Only other home I own is in Riften, and it's not even furnished.

the house Vindel hall (Markarth city) is my home, its my all time favorite

tried all the rest and i did not get that home-y feeling to them.

I know what you mean i did that with my first the nord but with my Khajiit who just turned 51. i have only one for storing loot and thats breezhome. the only downside i find is no enchanter but dragon reach has one.

you jus like all those book shelves there right lol

I am a level 34 Imperial. I have not done as much of the main quest line as I could have at this point so throughout Skyrim I only have Breezhome and the abandoned shack (Where the dark brotherhood take you). I've been using Breezhome extensively since I bought it and fixed it up. (before I fixed it up I literally had all my stuff in the one main trunk). But now I've separated all my belongings into the various chests and drawers and bookshelves. I even have a few Dibella statues places on the dinner table. As a thief I come home with many MANY items and most of which are not very valuable. I have heard that some people don't even pick up an item unless it has a certain value. I started the game lifting everything that wasn't glued down so I have one drawer in my Breezhome that has a vast array of worthless junk in it. But, once I started seeing how the buy/sell structure worked I realized that I have plenty of junk and now I don't pick anything up unless it has a value of around 200 or is considerably interesting (like the bee in a jar or Dibella statue). And when it comes to storing the items I also have them all separated by item category, I keep the most valuable stuff by my bed. Precious stones in one end table and soul gems in the other. I keep all the most expensive armor in the main bedroom chest and other attire items in the bedroom drawers. Weapons I keep in the set of drawers at the top of the stairs, and books are on shelves and the one cabinet nearest to the fire place (cuz that's where I do my reading). Ingredients go in the chest above the bookshelf in my alchemy room and I have a variety of potions in the barrel under the stairs. I used to keep my smithing items in the bedroom but it really became annoying to go back and forth from the forge next door to the bedroom so, now I've been keeping my smithing items (ore, ingots, leather, etc but not precious stones) in one of the barrels between Breezhome and Warmaiden's shop. I generally keep all keys on my person at all times (but if it were reality just the amount of keys alone would be over my carry limit, lol thank goodness they don't weigh anything).

I spend a good deal of time honing my smithing skills but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on quick ways to improve one's skills in this regard? I'm at 100 in pickpocketing and 70 in smithing. The funny (or perhaps sad) thing is that I've only mined one mine so far (the one by the black-briar lodge. I suppose my next personal quest will be to explore and mine the many other Skyrim mines.

The Whiterun house is the most practical imho. Second to that is the Riften house.

Every character I play only really uses one house. Which house it is depends on what I'm role playing. Though they all tend to get all the houses eventually, even if I don't use them. I have little use for the surplus cash anyhow so I just spend it on real-estate.

not to mention the awesoem fire place

I use all my homes for specific things. Alot of my finest gear, special items for delvin (you can just take them from the guild) and daedric artifacts go in windhelm home. My unique dwemer stuff, books and treasure like gems go in markarth house. Alot of my alchemy gets prioritized in the riften home (specialty pots, fortifiers, all the good ones... as well as ingredients). White run is my smithing home with my hunting trips starting and ending there....all my skins, ingots etc. get put in there. Solitude is the most underused home I have. I don't like the layout and even with mods I don't store anything there...its used by my housecfarl there lol

And yes I organize the crap out of all of them with specific cupboards, sacks and chests with certain types of items. My boyfriend isn't as organized as me and it drives me bonkers to see him put pots in the satchel instead of ingredients.

Never bought a house before, never will.

Im a theif myself but i have my smithing at a hundred by buying iron and leather from three ppl in whiterun that sell it and make iron daggers. do this untill you run out the sleep not wait sleep cause it will level fast then buy and make again. when your finished and have your smithing up. if your like me then you may have a large stash of soul gems so take em and your daggers to the enchater in dragonreach and enchat the crap out of em. that will boost your enchatment. even if you dont want it it will still help you level. then take the enchated daggers to the stores and watch your speech climb and money build.

For me its the other way around. she just puts it all in the one chest. I just shake my head.. "Silley Woman"

AGHHHH!!! Yeah that would drive me insane, I have to look away from the screen when he goes to his house and "organizes". I at least got him out of the habit of putting it all in one spot, now I gotta work on teaching him how to put certain things in the "appropriate" (yeah appropriate to me with my logic) place.

If she ever has to go and find a specific object for a quest or just because, she will regret the decision to put it all in one spot lol

But why? Are you just a nomad with no time for city folk?

Thank you for the thoughts. I love the inter-related aspect of it all. It really makes for a nice well rounded individual.

Technically not a home but my favorite by far is the arch mages quarters. Not the little room you get but the room with the enchanter and alchemy lab. It's by far my favorite. It has a safe also just like the solitude house. Plus you still have the room that was given to you at the start of the college quests and you have access to the one merchant who buys and sells everything and the other mages that sell all sorts of stuff. The quarters are just magical especially with the stuff growing in the middle. Everything is safe to store in there except for barrels for some reason. The only thing that is lacking is a smithing station but I already smithed everything I need so no biggie.

Next home I love is solitude. It's so close to all the great shops, it's very big and best or all the temple is there with all the blessing. I usually go there unload all my crap, go sell what I need to, smith, make potions, enchant them go to the church and give myself a blessing for the next 8 hours.

"where ever i lay my head is home"

My favorite home is the one that isn't bugged. So for me right now, that's Markarth. Solitude's weapon plaques are screwy, I've FUBAR'd the bookshelves in Whiterun, and I can't even get Riften and Windhelm.

My khajiit is a master archery amazing pickpocket, no locks go unpicked. knows his way around an anvil and has expert light armor perks. now at 51 leveling as come to a crawl
so he is working on one handed switch stones from theif to warrior and joined the companions.

My redguard spellsword owns all of them fully stocked and furnished except Windhelm. (doesnt like Windhelm)

Markarth is favorite. Home is where his heart/loot is (He worships Senna & Dibella) He also enchants and does all alchemy here.
Tried to use Solitude. Spent too much time trying to locate (keep up with Senna). Now Jordis just guards the safe upstairs.
Breezehome contains all smithing, ores, gems, etc which Lydia guards with her life.
Honeyside is great for a home cooked meal (Iona is a great cook) Love dining on back deck & diving off of it for eve swims.

Arch mage quarters is a great get away and resting place when adventuring with Ria, Njdia or Brelyna.

Before I ever delved into Skyrim I had read that the game let's your play decide what you're good at. That means that if you pickpocket all the time (like I do) then you'll become expert at it. Indeed I had my pickpocket skill up to 100 VERY quickly. And from the beginning I have been playing with the warrior stone blessing, because I'm more concentrating on thieving and smithing and so I figured if I needed help it would be in the realm of my warrior status. I have pretty good one handed combat skills but I have not invested the perks to back it up at this point. But I keep well stocked with health potions and almost all of my magic use has been in the restoration path, and even though I'm a thief I love heavy armor (cuz i'm a black smith).. So, you may hear me sneaking around but thanks to my armor I can take a pretty good beating.