Oblivion:Containers

A container is an object that a player can activate, opening an inventory list of its contents. Using this definition, NPCs and creatures, alive or dead, can be viewed as just another type of container, just like the more traditional containers, such as boxes, barrels and chests. 

After opening a container you will be able to transfer items from your personal inventory to the container's inventory and vice versa. Storing your items in a container is a great way to deposit the items that you don't want to carry, as well as prevent misplacing some of the smaller items like rings. Although most containers are only good for short-term storage, a few containers are safe for long-term storage. If you are just looking for a place to leave items, you can just drop them on the ground. They will typically be left there until you come back to collect them unless the cell they are in resets.

Unlike people, containers do not have a weight limit, allowing you to place many items within them, but be careful. There is a glitch with inventory lists which causes items to disappear from containers that have a large number of items stored in them. Saving and reloading can clear the glitch or you can keep removing items until the 'lost' items re-appear.

Checking Which Containers are Safe
If you're playing on a console, there is a way for you to check for safe containers.

Empty out all the containers you want to check, or add a specific disposable item (such as an ingredient) to each container. Leave the cell, then Wait for 73 hours (3 days plus one hour). After you've waited,  re-check the containers. Those that are empty or still contain your disposable item are most likely safe. For added certainty, repeat the previous three steps several times.

On the PC, you can check if any given container is safe by opening the Construction Set and searching for containers with their Respawn flag unchecked.

Simply dropping stuff on the ground is   safe, especially outdoors, except that if a nearby unarmed NPC is attacked (by anything) and needs a weapon they will pick up one from the ground.  A common practice is to dump loot in the corner of a merchant's shop (where it's less likely to get kicked around) if you plan to work on their Disposition and your Mercantile before selling to them later.

Container Regeneration
In Cyrodiil, most of the containers are reset as part of the cell reset event. This event resets many things back to their original state, and that includes containers. This makes the majority of the containers in Cyrodiil unsafe to store items in. After your character has been absent from the cell/area/zone for a minimum of 72 to 73 hours, the cell reset procedure will be triggered. The article on Dungeons - Loot provides a more detailed explanation of the timing for the cell reset trigger.

Using NPCs and Creatures as Containers
Alive
A living NPC, either awake or asleep, is effectively a container. When you are using the Sneak skill to pick their pocket, it opens up the same list you would get if you opened a regular container. When pickpocketing an NPC, you typically remove items from their inventory, and place them in yours.  However, it is also possible to reverse pickpocket zero weight items, placing the item into the NPC's inventory.  This method can be impractical with non-followers, however, since it may be difficult to locate them.

You cannot pickpocket creatures, making storing items while they are alive impossible. However, Shadowmere can be used as a traveling container. Simply knock her unconscious by killing her, then store your items on her. She will then wake up, and your items will still be in her inventory. If you ever need to gain access to it, just knock her unconscious again.

Dead
Although it may sound strange, corpses can be useful as a temporary container. They can be moved to a place and positioned so they become a very useful container. The reanimate effect is useful for this, as you can load the corpse and make it follow you. Moving the corpse into an awkward position is a useful way to indicate the corpse is being used as a container, so when you go running past the corpse on the way out of an area, its position will remind you that it has stored loot on it. In areas that your horse can access, place the body slightly elevated above the ground, like on a rock. This allows you to access them from horseback, move items to your inventory and move a lot of items at one time that would typically overburden your character. Just be sure you have another place you can drop your items because once you dismount your steed, you will be over-encumbered.

A dismembered corpse with multiple separate parts, such as the corpse of a Skeleton or Storm Atronach, has an extra advantage.  Activating any one of the components provides you with access to the entire corpse's inventory.  Parts such as the skull can be moved (using "Grab") more easily than entire corpses.  You can load up the corpse with many heavy items then carry the skull to another location, thus circumventing the Encumbrance limit.
Other creatures with lightweight corpses can also be used as portable containers.  The Slaughterfish corpses located outside Miscarcand, for example, are lightweight and non-respawning containers. Elsewhere, dead rats are easy to transport, though they respawn.

Using the corpse of an NPC or creature as a container must be done with caution because the corpse and its contents will disappear when the cell reset event is triggered. When reset, the corpses of generic NPCs and creatures will be removed and another one will replace it. For named NPCs, their corpse will be removed and they will not respawn. An exception to this is for the corpses of an NPC related to a quest. In this case, the corpse and its contents will disappear only after you have completed the quest in which that NPC participates (e.g. Jearl in the Spies quest). Furthermore some NPCs, such as Glarthir, are tagged as "Quest items" so their bodies will never disappear, making them permanent containers. See this list of permanent corpses.

Traditional Containers
Traditional containers are what you would normally expect a container to be; a box, chest, or barrel. A list of the types and where you would expect to find them is presented below. Traditional containers can be safe or unsafe for you to store items in. Remember that many traditional containers may be locked. To open a locked container will require you to successfully pick the lock or use an Open spell.

Types of Traditional Container
These are the different kinds of containers you will see around Cyrodiil and the Planes of Oblivion. For the sake of being general, common loot is divided into Food, Books, Clothes, Treasure, and Clutter.

Ayleid Casks, Coffers and Reliquaries 
Found only in Ayleid Ruins. 
Common Loot: Treasure

Barrels 
Come in different sizes. Usually found everywhere in Cyrodiil. 
Common Loot: Clutter

Cabinets 
Comes in Middle-class and Upper-class. Most commonly seen in houses and shops, but forts occasionally contain cabinets. 
Common Loot: Food, Clothes

Chests 
Come in rounded-(Middle-class) and flat-(Upper-class) top versions. Most commonly seen in houses and shops, but ruins, caves, forts and mines often contain chests. 
Common Loot: Clutter, Treasure

Coffins 
Most commonly seen in caves, but also forts, ruins and occasionally coffins. 
Common Loot: Treasure

Counters 
Found in most Mages guilds and some shops. 
Common Loot: Location-specific; eg, alchemical tools in the Mages Guild, jewelry in the Red Diamond Jewelry

Covered Pots 
Easily overlooked since there is a Covered Pot item. They are unique in the way that some can be moved using the "drag" key. Most commonly seen in houses and shops. 
Common Loot: Food, Clutter

Crates 
Come in different sizes. Usually found everywhere in Cyrodiil. 
Common Loot: Clutter, Food

Desks 
Comes in a closed middle-class and open upper-class version. Primarily found in houses and shops, but occasionally found elsewhere. 
Common Loot: Clutter, Books

Drawers/Dressers 
Comes in Lower-, Middle- and Upper-class versions. Sometimes two drawers are stacked on each other, consequentially giving them two inventory lists.  Most commonly seen in houses, but forts occasionally contain drawers. 
Common Loot: Clothes

Fleshy Pods 
Found only in the Planes of Oblivion. 
Common Loot: Treasure

Jewelry Boxes 
Small boxes generally seen on bookshelves. Most commonly seen in houses, shops and forts. The jewelry box closest to the start of the game (and requires no effort to access) is in an open coffin on the shore due east of Fort Empire (across the lake west-northwest from the Imperial Isle). 
Common Loot: Treasure

Sacks 
Come in Torn, Open or Closed versions. Usually found everywhere in Cyrodiil. 
Common Loot: Food

The Punished 
Found only in the Planes of Oblivion. 
Common Loot: Treasure

Safe Containers
A small number of containers in Cyrodiil are safe containers and do not reset. Items placed in a safe container will remain there, even if you do not visit that zone for a long period of time. 

There are a few types of containers that are safe, no matter where you find them:

Sack: There are 520 such containers, all labeled "Sack." They will contain 3-5 identical samples of a grain (Corn, Flour, Rice, or Wheat Grain) or be empty. 
There are two quests which remove a particular sack of this sort, leading to the loss of everything inside it: A Plot Revealed removes the one in Bruma Mages Guild; and Goblin Trouble removes the one in Crestbridge Camp.
Torn Sack of Grain: There are 91 that exist in the game. Similar to the above, with a tear in the side and grain spilling out onto the floor. 
Jewelry Box: Small carved wooden box. Can be found immediately after exiting the sewers, in an opened crate on the shore north of Vilverin.
Hollow Tree Stump: Found in the small alley behind Rindir's Staffs in the Imperial City Market district. While it is later used as a dead-drop location by the Dark Brotherhood (if you are doing those quests), the assassination orders are added to the container without affecting its other contents.
Clams: There are 318 clams in the game, found underwater in various bodies of water.  Seven can be found just outside the entrance to the Imperial Prison Sewer, when you first finish the Tutorial.
Permanent corpses: Even less realistically, anyone/anything who was dead before you got there (including roasted rats) will work.
Storage in player homes (see section below).

NPCs and your stored items

NPCs will not remove items from safe containers, with these exceptions:
Mazoga the Orc will eat food out of the containers in the White Stallion Lodge.  It is advisable to leave out some cheap items for her to keep her out of any alchemical items of value if you store any there.
After you get a permanent free room in the Aleswell Inn as a reward for Zero Visibility, other inn guests may remove stolen items from the chest of drawers in the room (which is not a safe container until after that quest is complete). They may also sometimes remove food and drink items.

Player Houses
All houses that you officially acquire have safe containers, with the initial exception of the one in Anvil. Since you can enter the house before you complete the related quest, Where Spirits Have Lease, in which you acquire ownership of the house, some of the containers found inside are not initially safe. Containers that have been identified as unsafe before quest completion are the overturned drawers near the entrance and the cupboard in the southwest corner of the dining room. These containers disappear when Velwyn cleans up the house at the end of the quest. Take caution, as there may be other containers that disappear or reset. The cupboard in the northwest corner of the sitting area is safe.

See Houses &sect;&thinsp;Free "Houses" for a list of places you do not have to buy which have both safe storage and usable beds.

See also Unsafe Containers, below, for a warning about a container the Arch-Mage's Quarters.

Quest-related
Some of these can be used without any quest-related activity.


Also check the discussion notes for Other Safe Containers that are under investigation.

Unsafe Containers
The majority of containers in Cyrodiil are unsafe to store items in because they are routinely reset. When the cell reset has been triggered, the contents of all traditional containers in that cell will be reset to the items assigned to it. Pages such as Monster Dungeons and Undead Dungeons provide information on the default contents of containers.  When the container resets, everything in the container is removed and replaced by a new set of random, leveled loot. One advantage is that you can return to a dungeon multiple times and obtain a new set of loot each time. However, long-term storage is not possible in these containers.

There is an enchanted chest in the Arch-Mage's Quarters of the Arcane University. Once you are the Arch-Mage, you can put a compatible ingredient in, and after a full day, 10 more of those ingredients will be added. Although this chest multiplies ingredients and you can take them freely, it is not a safe container. After one week everything in it will disappear.

Inns
You cannot safely store your items in inn chests, even if the container in question was initially empty. All but one type of seemingly empty chest will respawn, clearing its contents.

Static Containers
Static containers may or may not look like containers, and you can't bring up their inventory list. You can, however, place items in or on them by moving them.

Barrels (broken or opened)
Baskets (An exception is the one in Glarthir's house as well as one in Bruma Castle Service Hall. Both contain 800 gold and an inkwell.)
Bookcases
Broken Chests
Crates (broken or opened)
Display Cases (the glass casing opens)
Weapon Racks
Wine Racks