I am just beginning my foray into Skyrim modding, though I am no stranger to the "old ways."

Right now, I am trying out something simple before I expand on the concept, and that is forcing a cell to reset/respawn quicker than the default game time settings. In order to test this, I made a quick cell with some basic (not set to respawn) loot chests and loose items - books, plates, cups.

I then followed these instructions to the letter from http://www.creationkit.com/Cell_Reset:

Yet, upon reentering the cell, there was no change. The chests were empty and open, and the loot was gone.

Any suggestions? Ultimately, I will want to rest the cell via script, but I just want to see if a reset/respawn is possible.

Some notes: the cell is not connected to the world, I use COC to get in and out. The save I use has never loaded the cell before.

So, you set the chests to NOT respawn? If so, that would explain why they didn't. Or perhaps you mistyped? I have used the same method quite often to reset cells I was testing, and it has always worked like a charm. There is also a flag somewhere to make cells/locations never respawn, which you'll want to make sure you have unchecked.