(U6O)-Housing
One of the nicest features of Ultima 6 Online is the addition of a housing system. All around Britannia are Houses you can purchase/rent, some bigger than others.
Houses serve a few purposes: "Safe" storage space, and a place to collect various provisions. A safe storage spot is on the shelves into your closet, DO NOT PUT THINGS ON BARRELS IN YOUR CLOSET, or they will disappear.
First, you need to find a House you like. All Houses will have a sign next to the doorway stating that the building is for sale, and the number that designates that house. Once you find a house you like, go and talk to Tholden in the Britain Mint. He is in the same building where you can exchange gold nuggets and bank your hard-earned gold.
When you ask Tholden about a "house", he will ask which House you are interested in. Tell him the number of the house you want, and he will state the purchase price of the house, plus the daily gold upkeep needed to retain the house. ALL Houses require you to make payments in order to keep your home and are based on Real World days, not in-game days.
Once you accept the purchase details of the House, Tholden will hand you the key to that House. DO NOT THROW YOUR KEY AWAY. You will ALWAYS need it (Note: Fortunately, it is not possible to throw the key away, as it is a "quest item"). You can, at this point, deposit any additional funds you would like towards your current House Payment balance.
Now that you've got your House Key, travel to your house, then Use your House Key on the front door to unlock it. It's a good rule of thumb to get into a habit of locking your house's front door each time you enter or leave.
As you look around, you'll notice almost all of the furniture is labeled as "Taking this is Stealing!" but a few items you can freely take. Food on tables, potions, gems, the odd dagger or such cal all be safely taken, and used by you. Best thing is, your House will respawn these supplies from time to time.
Also in your House will be your own personal storage area located behind another locked door. You can open this using the same key you used to unlock your front door. Inside, you will find shelves to stor your stuff. Anything you place in your stoage area will not "decay". Items in your storage area can only be stacked up to 8 items high, so you might have to use containers (bags, backpacks, chests, etc) to really pack it all in. Be sure to LOCK YOUR STORAGE AREA DOOR when done. If you don't lock the storage area back up, your items will eventually vanish. Also, any items dropped outside of your Storage Area will eventually fade and vanish, just like if you had tossed the item on the ground anywhere else.
SELLING/RETURNING YOUR HOUSE
You can "own" only one House per character. So what if you find a nicer House that you'd like to move into? Fear not! You can sell your current House back to Tholden.
Speaking with Tholden, when you ask about selling your house, he will refund your current House Payment balance back, and inform you that upon your next full login to U6O, all items in your storage area will be moved into chests, and your House key reclaimed from your pack. You can then purchase a new House.
A word of caution: If you have a LOT of funds in your current House Payment account, and you sell your house, you could possibly loose all of those funds if you do no have room to carry it all. Be forewarned.
HOUSING LOCATIONS
The cheapest housing can be found in Lord British's Castle, on the 2nd floor. Some other houses of note are House #50, located right next to Britain's Moongate, and House #48, located in the Mountains just south of Cove. There is also a large housing castle far west and a little south of Paws, along the coast in the west. The best way to get there is to follow along a river that runs southward. So, if you are coming from Britain, follow the west road toward Skara Brae, but when you get to Michael/Blade's house, turn South. You will soon encounter the river. Just follow the river southward towards the end.