[Wids]

I too when I first came was upset at loss and such, but all this tips wise. As soon as you can buy a horse with saddle bags.
You can keep items there. The horse does not have to be expensive. Store as soon as you can extra suit or armor or at least a basic suit of clothes, spare weapon,shield etc. Even if you do not ride its easy access storage.

...unless your horse gets killed. Horses are fast, so be sure to run away if things go South, because if you die while on horseback, your horse dies with you. Which reminds me that the reason why Wyren had to go running about two-dozen leagues naked and penniless was because her dead horse was completely covering her death pack, so she couldn't get any of her stuff before the Invisibility-ignoring mephit was back on her case. So there's another reason to never die while on horseback.

Also, practice typing VEE [with no Enter key before, after or at all], because if you dismount in the wilderness and your horse goes charging around a copse of trees to fight a Minotaur Berserker that you didn't know was there, you need to call your stupid horse back immediately before it gets slaughtered and leaves you horseless and saddlebag-less six leagues from Eltabbar. Voiceset commands save lives. The more you know. ;)