If you know anything about me you would know that I hate buying houses in games and prefer to live in seclusion in the wild. Unfortunately, we can't do this in Skyrim, and I'm wondering if anyone has a good list of places that aren't owned and have safe containers. I already know your spouse's house has safe containers and the Abandoned Shack for the DB quest does as well, but those aren't really to my...liking. I would also suggest adding these to both the UESP and Elderscrolls.wikia to help other people. Thanks for any help

Until the CS comes out, it will be impossible to provide this answer.

However, unless a container respawns, there should be no reason why the contents would not be safe. Containers that do respawn should not allow you to put things in it in the first place. The biggest issue is ownership, if you put something in a container you don't own, you might be stealing when you take it back out. I have not taken over a house in this game, but does ownership go away when the former occupants are dead for 72 hours?

One of the devs said that containers are not always safe in this game, but that rumor flew around about Oblivion and Morrowind too and it turned out to not have any basis.

So, until we can look in the Editor and see which containers are not set to respawn, just be careful about where you put stuff. And, test it out before you store anything that is unique or needed for a quest.

Wait, the occupants have to be dead for 72 hours?
*epic facepalm*
I wish I knew that, it would make my house hunting so much easier.

make some iron daggers and put 1 in the container of yoru choosing after 4 days if its still there it should be safe

Test the chest by by Krosis at Skyreach. If any container doesn't respawn, it will be that one. Put somethign in it, fast travel away, rest for over a month, go back. If it is still there, you have a safe chest. If there is a new dragon and new loot, then nothing is safe.

The large chest in the Arch Mage's chamber(once you are archmage).

It doesn't seem to ever respawn.

Any container in a Player-Owned house.

"Special" Containers like Dragon Priests (Krosis) and Treasures (From the Treasure Maps) doesn't seem to respawn.

30, as in THIRTY days is the safe number in Skyrim.
Not 3 days + 1hour (73)
Not 4 days

Thirty.

It takes much longer for game cells to reset, when compared to previous TES titles. But there has yet to be an actual answer from Beth. And, to add to the confusion, some things are quite odd, indeed.
Examples:
1. Mined some Iron and Corundum near one another. Stayed away from that game cell for 31 days. Upon return, the Corundum was back but the Iron remained depleted.
2. Deer, Elk, Wolves, Hawks and Mudcrabs; all hunted within two neighboring game cells. SIX days later the Elk and Wolves were back. All other kills remained lying where they had fallen a week prior.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason and all we ask is clear, authoritative info. No speculation or guesses by the forum, no such-and-such mine respawned after...
...but an actual answer from Beth.
Simple, really.
This could all be put straight with one post from one Dev.
When do game cells reset? Which containers, other than in player-owned homes, are safe?

The only assurance to re-spawning game cells I've found is to hunker in a cave for 31 days.
And, even then...maybe. :shrug:

All wardrobes and cupboards in your room in the Hall of Attainment (College of Winterhold) seem to be safe, I have stored loads of stuff in there for quite a while now.