Is it really worth hoarding all the loot you find?

I sell as I loot. The merchants seem to get more cash every day or so. So if I have a big haul I sell what I can and I keep a special chest just for stuff I know I want to sell. So if I have a day in town I do nothing but hang out at the pub drinking, or spend crafting or something, I go back to that chest and sell more the next day.

Plus you can trade instead of sell, buy soul gems or alchemy ingredients or such that will always be useful.

Of course at nine barrels of loot you are way behind. Fast travel to vendors in each city?

fellow Skyrim hoarder!

First, you want to move all that stuff to your own house in Whiterun. The barrels are not guaranteed safe in the long term. There are numerous chests and other storage items, including bookshelves, end tables and sacks.

You can gradually liquidate your stock by selling little at a time, and fast travelling between towns to sell your junk. Shops eventually recover their gold, so sell a little of your junk every time you visit the city. Buy everything you can first, because that'll increase the seller's current money, so you can sell more things.

Another trick is that some shopkeepers (such as the alchemist shop in Whiterun) also give skill training. Money you spend on training goes into the seller's current funds, which lets you sell a lot more.

Some stuff is useful, so it's worth hoarding. Alchemical items can be used to craft hundreds of potions in one go and max out Alchemy. All those ancient Nord swords can be enchanted in one sitting to raise Enchanting, ingots to make weapons, and so forth.

Stop picking up truly useless items, though. Especially ignore junk with a high weight to value ratio and no use, like embalming tools and tankards.

When you're high level and have a lot of gold, you'll run out of things to spend it on. At this point, stop bothering with low-end items like steel or orcish swords. Ignore anything unless it's useful or worth a lot.

I have found that the thieves guild is the best place to sell you loot. Even when you just join there is a fence, who buys anything, and has a thousand gold. If you go through the quest line and upgrade the guild, there will be merchants with thousands of gold to buy loot.

Their money supplies will refresh every few days, so you can just go back and keep selling.