Alright I know some of you types are out there. You were doing this in Oblivion and Fallout 3, and I do it too and love it. There's nothing like scouring the lands looking for that perfect place to call your home, since you don't find those city houses to your liking.

Basically, list the places you have found which have non respawning containers and make good houses. Remember that the containers clear after 10 or 30 days (30 days for dungeons, 10 days for non clearable areas)

So far I just have one place which is Anise's shack, it's on the north side of the river, a bit west of Riverwood. All the containers are good except for the barrel on the top floor, and there is an enchanting and alchemy table in the basemant. It's a decent location since it counts as an outside location, so you can fast travel to it and immediately access your containers without the hassle of loading screens. Has a working bed too and is generally a nice looking location.

There's also Meeko's shack, only has two containers though, and when the shacks owner despawns after you drag him off his bed and dump the body outside, the bed disappears along with the body, which is a bit of a problem if you care about having a bed in your place.

I'm currently looking for a place for my Warrior in the reach, a nice crumbly tower of some kind would be just perfect.

So what about you guys, are you all a bunch of nomadic bums with wanderlust in your hearts? Are you always looking for that perfect property, or do you choose to just put your head down at various hunter/bandit camps? I'd love to hear from other people who do this kind of thing.

Well, if you get married, you can move in with your spouse.

Yup this is true. Also you can sleep in a friends house, basically anyone you have done a small quest for and treats you like a friend afterwards. Not sure about the containers though. What I'm really after are unusual alternatives for housing, like special dungeons etc.

For example

If you've done the quest for the Mace of Molag Bal, you can use the abondoned house in Markarth as a house. I read on the wiki that it has non-respawning continers so you could use that one aswell (and it's in the reach aswell which might suit your warrior!)

Also, if you've done the Dark Brotherhood quests and finished, the new sanctuary is excellent, big bedroom, dresser, chest, bookshelf, weapon racks everywhere (in your room and otherwise), alchemy lab at the entrance, mannequin, chests in all the other rooms, a torture chamber and minions (2 to be exact).

I generally just use Breezehome but I bought Honewdew in Riften last night, so I'll pimp that out soon and use that however I do like the sound of the one you talked about near Riverwood

I bought the house in Markarth. The only purpose for it is to strew priceless unique items around the bedroom and make it shiny and cluttered as possible. I don't trust storage containers until checked for myself in the CS.

As for actual places I use, I end up staying at inns or sleeping in bandit camps. Or the Thalmor Headquarters in Solitude, which for some reason is completely open to my character, nice beds and all - only things marked as 'owned' are the potions/display cases.

Yeah, I'm curious about this as well. I've been carrying around those dragon bones and they're weighing me down. I want to dump them somewhere so I can use them in the future.

Don't the various huts reset? I thought most of them were in the steal/non-owned mode type thing.

But there's also the various guild halls.

Aw yeeeeeeeah!!! The Thalmor Head Quarters with no Thalmor in it! That's another good place >__<

check out the alchemists shack. follow the road north of helgen. Theres an alchemist table(obviously) but i havent checked if you can store stuff there. Theres also the the riverside shack i believe you can use

Heres a list from the wiki

Alchemist's Shack, has two barrels and an endtable for containers. Also has the benefit of an alchemy lab.
Meeko's Shack, has a barrel and an endtable for containers.
Riverside Shack, has one safe wardrobe and a bed. See this page for more details on safe containers.
Abandoned Shack, this is where you take part in the initiation of the dark brotherhood
Traitor's Post, has two wardrobes and a cupboard that you can store items in. The chest there resets along with the bandits.
Lund's Hut, NNW of Rorikstead. Farm house with non-functioning bed. Only the chest and end table are safe containers.
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Great find with the Thalmor place, I will definitely be using this. I found the place on my mage and was a bit puzzled since it seemed like nobody lived there (I had not seen any Thalmor in the city at all)

As for various huts resetting, these are all different and have to be tested separately. Basically put one iron arrow in each container in the house, go stand outside and wait for 10 days, any container which still has arrows in after those 10 days is safe.

The reason I think the huts etc are different, and why some of them are filled with safe containers, is that I believe the developers designed those specific areas with their own characters in mind, creating themselves a little home for when they play the game perhaps.

Alchemist's Shack. That's what I use....it only has 2 barrels and one end table, but they DO NOT re-spawn...and it has a bed as well as an alchemy lab.
And...there is no door so you don't have to wait for a load screen.
One character I have eventually bought the house in Markarth, and my 1st character got the one in Whiterun, but my current Khajiit just might not buy a house at all...
Alchemist's Shack works...albeit a little limited.

Hmm, I think I might not have understood something -- I was going to reply that you could use the containers in the lower part of the Halted Stream Camp, as long as you remember to lock the door behind you each time you leave. But, are you suggesting, that the containers and their contents will reset in this space? I lost nothing, and eventually moved it to Breezehome, but I'm curious now whether stuff in the big chest at the bottom would eventually have disappeared.

I stored the bones and scales in the dresser in the companions sleepeing area, you will see it straight ahead as you enter. Because they do weigh alot. Then I bought the pad in whitern and stored there. But I have also been known to occupy the places I become the head of, but I have not had much luck using houses in the country where I've killed the occpants and moved in . Although I may look into that place accross from Riverwood !! And is that torure rack in the dark brotherhood useable ??

Lund's Hut is a good place to cook stuff...if you're into that sort of thing.

Containers that aren't player owned, like inside houses you buy should generally be considered unsafe. However, lots of containers outside of player housing are actually safe, but should be tested first to make sure.

Any container is safe if you plan to use it for only 10 days. The timer on the reset can be put back to 0 by visiting the cell that the container is in. So theoretically you could use anywhere as your house, as long as you remembered to refresh the cell before the container reset.

Look up the glitch on YouTube were you can get the Whiterun house for free.

I've been using the abandoned shack on my nights when I get furry..

So, in the case of the chest behind the locked door of Halted Stream Camp, you are saying that the reason my stuff didn't disappear was that I went back there frequently, but if I hadn't, my stuff would have either disappeared?

Also, in one instance right now in my own house an item in a container became "red' as if I'd have to steal it from myself -- is that a bug?

Are you guys saying there's something wrong with Markarth's chests, bookshelves, weapon rack and mannequin?

I just stored all my gold and silver ingots there ... As well as my Dragon Priest masks ... and my Sanguine Rose ...

Please tell me it ain't so!

Free shacks, Spouse Houses, others, etc: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Houses

Well, crap. I was moving stiff from whiterun to my new place in markarth when the opportunity presented itself, but scratch that huh.

Could be, or could be that it's a safe container, plenty of containers out there in the wilds are safe, and plenty aren't. That's why it's so fun for me to test this stuff. I must be crazy :0


Yes this is a bug, but happily it can be fixed. Load all your "stolen" items into a container and have your follower loot that container, it will remove the buggy stolen flag.