So I have discovered what has become my favorite new safe house. Fast Travel to the Western Watchtower (where you first killed a dragon and the Whiterun guards argued about whether or not you were Dragonborn... since its VERY early in the game I am going to assume it isn't a spoiler)

It is a short horse ride down that road to the west there is a shell of a house. There is no roof, the walls are falling down, grass is growing on the inside and there is a stone cold fireplace that hasn't been fired up in a decade. There is also a bed that you can sleep in an hidden under a crack in the floor board is a chest you can store stuff in.

Does anyone know if this is a safe chest? I am currently testing it out and it *appears* safe. Also it is a very quick jog down a path from a fast travel location with no load screen. Its in the middle of nowhere and its free.

Its perfect for me!

What is your perfect secret spot and why?

Apparently there are no safe chests other than the ones in your own home. I'm using the one in the arch mages quarters and as i'm the arch mage figured it's safe.

Was using the abandoned house in markarth for a while too with no one stealing my loot

I looked in the CK the other day and researched the Containers.

What I have determined is:

Outside of Dungeons and Barracks, if the container says Chest, it is not set to respawn. The only issue is if the Chest is owned.

I use breezehome, the arch-mage's quarters, and my ex-dorm

breezehome contains crafting stuff, and non-mage stuff

the quarters hold my mage stuff

and the ex-dorm holds my companion's gear (I have 3 sets. 1 for each build. 1 per wardrobe)

The Riverwood archers house is safe, I started using it as soon as I got the Riverwood and my gear is still there after 200 hours.

Drela's Cottage (south of Morthal, west of Whiterun) has three safe containers: a dresser and two end tables. The chest is not safe. This location has alchemy & enchanting tables too.

I used Alchemist's shack (safe end table) in my last playthrough until I could afford Honeyside. I really loved that location; the woods are beautiful there.

About which chest and drawers and barrels and other containers are safe or not... I have determined that if you keep coming back before the respawn time limit is up then all open air containers (containers that are not in NPC homes or owned by NPCs) are safe.

I have used the barrels outside warmaiden's as a stash spot since day 1 and I am well over a hundred hours in to my level 45 thief/smith. I have pretty much only used one barrel and recently I switched to having that be my smithing materials barrel. I come back to it very often, probably once every day maybe once every other day at least. I don't actually know what the respawn timeframe is for these barrels but I think it is probably like every ten days. But I've never lost anything and the barrel has never went back to holding 4 carrots.

So, I think the real trick if you want to use an unowned container is to keep using it often. From my experience if you use it daily then it becomes a safe barrel.

The Respawn Timer is 30 days for containers. If you go back in that cell before the 30 days are up, then it resets the timer.

I also looked up barrels and furniture and most of those are not set to respawn either. Problem is, enough are that I can't make the same blanket statement I can make about Chests.

Uthger's house seems safe but early in the game so far, maybe followers houses where you can sleep are safe since Faendal's has has always been safe for my gear. Uthger's house is very nice with a cosy fireplace rather than the Breezehome fire pit.

I'm wondering about the Abandoned Shack at the beginning of the DB quest. Considering I got a KEY and all...

I use the Alchemist's shack. As someone already mentioned, there's an end table that will hold your stuff. The location is perfect and it has such a scenic environment.

I use the abandoned shack from the Dark Brotherhood quest.

i used my room in the companions guild forever came back every couple days to check up on it, nothing ever disappeared

But I believe that if you check up on the stuff every couple of days by opening the container you reset the timer.

Am I correct here?

Yes, you are correct In order to test if a container is safe or not, you need to stay away from the cell for 30 game-days.