Hi, just rolled a new character and don't plan on owning a house, nor joining any guilds and as such it leaves me with a little problem on where to store my loot/goods.

I don't mind storage around Whiterun either, so that's good too.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Have you been to the secret room in Riverwood inn? Opening it early via console doesn't break any quest and you'll have an empty chest at your disposal. If you don't mind cheating a little, that is.

I'm on the 360, so no console for me.

until beth releases the Creation Kit the only truly safe storage is in a house you own. as you can see the list of verifiable 'safe' containers outside of owned homes is pretty short at the moment: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Containers#Safe_Containers

Who did you run off with in Helgen? If you ran off with the Stormcloak, his sister Gerdur gives you the key to her house, and her chests are safe. It sure beats running off with that Imperial bloke at the start.

I went with the stormcloak as there was no way i was trusting the imperials minutes after they tried to exicute me.

So i do have her house at my disposal. Cheers!

Supposedly, the chest in the mages guild student quarters is safe too, but I didn't trust it. Culveyhouse on Youtube's walkthrough used Delphine's basemant too and didn't lose his stuff. Completing the mages guild quest gets you the archmage's quarters and the chest at the foot of the bed has held the stuff I put in it at fairly low level up to where I am now at L41.

I personally worked the Whiterun part of the main quest and then saved till I could buy the Whiterun house. That gives you 1 chest. Then once I had the upgrades I had all the chests I needed.

Culveyhouse also used multiple followers (the elf in Riverwood and Lydia) and used the one he wasn't adventuring in to hold his stuff for him.

The companions give you a room too but I'm not sure that is safe either.

All chests, cabinets are safe regardless if its your house or not. skyrim does a miserable job of garbage collection and will respawn an entire cell but leave your items intact.

Barrels however, will get properly purged.

I've been dumping skulls on the ground in WhiteRun for months now- they don't seem to go anywhere. I'd guess there's at least 400 rolling around out there by now. I think it's safe to just drop stuff on the ground if you're outside. I drop my smithing outfit next to the smelter and it's always there when I come back.
I've also been dropping enchant potions next tot he enchant station in dragon's reach for a while, they never disappear.

Anise's Cabin has storage and is over near Riverwood. That's where I squat.

delphines secret room is totally safe to store stuff, i use it all the time, as a matter of fact its a good place to live early in the game after she gives you the key...also there are a few of the wizards you can do things for fairly early on and get to use their bed and storage, like the wizard in riften, after you get some stuff for her, you can use her bed and chest to store stuff in..fendals house is safe also to store stuff in and there is a bed in the other house you get to use and i'm pretty sure there is a chest there too thats safe to store stuff in, but you have to follow the stormcloakc, rolaf i think his name is.

If you're in the Thieves Guild you can store items in the chest next to your bed. And I think the chest in the Nightingale HQ is safe...but I'm still testing that one...but so far it hasn't deleted any of my items.