I believe that completed quests vs. incompleted aren't going to effect the file save, they both store the information to what parts where / weren't completed, Misc. Quests however could, as these do not show up in your completed quest list.

Great job on the reply

be sure to read Slick Van Tanoids thread great info for you there, for each item that is in a different container, this adds another item to the save file, rather then another count. What I do which is probably really helping keep save size down, when I put items in containers within the houses, I have specific containers for specific items, I.E. All food in one / two containers, all ingredients in their own container, Jewerly in their own container, armor in their own, weapons in there own. I dont mix the containers with armor/weapons/books/scrolls, each container has its own item types in it. This helps cut back on time it takes to find stuff, as well as helping to prevent menu freeze crashes people experience from too many items being within a single container.

Stacked items (i.e. 20 of one item in a single container) take alot less space in the save file then 20 of one item in 20 containers, your correct on that, for each individual item it stores the item refid, and effects on that item (i.e. 20% magic resistance) to the save file, stacked items only store that data once along with a count of how many are in the container. dropped items or items 'placed' in your home (positioning a bottle on a table) take more space as well, as not only the above info is stored for each but the x, y, z position, and x,y,z rotation of the item.

if your waiting for cleanup to a specific area, yes I'd stay out of the area for 30 days, I'm pretty sure every time you revisit the area, the counter for the 30 day cleanup is reset, and if your waiting for a specific area to clean up using the 'wait' menu, i would also suggest traveling to the opposite side of the map, or the farthest corner away that you can before doing it. It seems some cells are linked for the clean up. i.e. just going outside of "whiterun" and waiting 30 days wont clean up the items you knocked off the stands town, so its best to get as far away as possible to prevent linked cells from stopping the cleanup.

Not sure this has been verified, but *if* it's true ... it might be useful once in awhile to go into one of your homes and wait thirty in-game days. In theory, at least, this would give the rest of the world a chance to cleanup.

IF this is true, then I really hope Bethesda gives us a "wait X days" option, instead of having to manually wait 30 days.

Well, yeah, but if they're gonna bother with that, they might as well just spend the time fixing the cause of needing to wait in the first place ... me thinks.

Yes, this is a good technique. It really helps with trying to find stuff, because (for whatever reason) the developers didn't sort the contents of containers into alphabetical order like the players inventory does, making it quite tedious to find something your looking for. Finding a particular piece of armour in your designated 'armour' container is hard already, but if all items were put into one container, it would become very difficult to find something.

Well considered! People tend to forget about the orientation of the object. On a side note, this also explains why we see dragon skeletons twitching for the first few seconds when you fast travel to a point near them. This is because (I would assume) only the position and orientation of the centrepoint of the object is stored. No (or minimal) information about the position of the limbs are stored. Limbs are reset to a default position when the object is created. Thus, when a dragon skeleton is first activated (or any dead body) the rag-doll physics are processed and the limbs of the model relax from their initial default position to a position resting on the floor, moved by the force of gravity. I think that fixing this will require more data to be stored, and result in savegame bloat. So, I don't mind if this bug is never fixed.

I feel like going on skyrim now and trying these cleanup methods but then i think to myself...why should i have to? Why cant i just play tbe game and whatever happens,happens. Shouldnt have to worry nirnroot glowstacking or picking the weapons up off of every single enemy i fight. Its pathetic and there is no way im going to change the way i play the game to correct bethesdas incompetence. If patch 1.4 fails its goodbye skyrim, hello trade in.