In Morrowind it was really tedious to place personal items in your house, on shelves and tables and such. But as long as you took the time it worked out pretty well, at least as I recall. I always liked laying out all the clothes/weapons/artifacts out to see.
In Oblivion it was a little better with the implementation of display cases and stuff, but (at least for me) the physics made things really frustrating, like being too close to a wall and having something fly to the other side of the room. And then if you bumped it..same thing. I would just give up usually.
I know this isn't the most vital issue ever but personalizing my house was always a big part of the immersion in my case, do you think Skyrim may have something different implemented?
or at least some kind of improvement on Oblivion i'm sure.

I agree with you. I really liked setting up a place with items I found, but sometimes it was just so frustrating. And one time I walked into one of the mage's guilds (can't remember which, but the second floor had bookcases in kind of an alcove/corner) and all of a sudden there was a big book explosion. I don't know if I bumped something, but the physics engine (I assume) went haywire and about 30 or 40 books just exploded off the shelves. I was going to pick them up and put them back on the shelves, but after two books I had to give up. Really need a better way to move/place items without a tiny nudge sending items scattering off of tables.

I agree. When ever I would want to place a silver goblet it would spin when I was holding it, and then it would turn upside down and on it side...then placing it was a nightmare. I would like to see some improvement from oblivion.

Yeah, setting up my house was so frustrating, considering how finicky everything was when holding/moving it. I think the developers should make some sort of sticky system where items are placed in standard positions and in certain directions, according to the poles of the building, ie: straight up, lying down, etc.