PC [BUG] chest disappears on reload

[Worblehat]

I made my first chest at the very end of Day 2. Did not have an inventory space for it so it went on the ground, on the front porch a couple spaces left of the front door. At that point the clock hit midnight and turned red to emphasize that I needed to go to sleep, so I did that rather than wrestling with inventory at the time. So at the time the game saved there was an empty chest next to my front door.

Day 3, wake up, go outside, dump my piece of clay in the overnight shipping bin (for lack of any better idea for how to clear an inventory slot - I tried dropping it on the ground but it just jumped right back into inventory), interact with chest. The interface was very confusing at that point, I guess what happened was that I was officially placing the chest in a permanent way, or something. Once it was back on the ground, I was on the far side of it and had inadvertently locked myself onto that small section of my own porch. Oops. At least I had a save immediately before. So I reload, go outside, and there's no chest.

From what I've read chests can disappear if an NPC paths into it, but that's not what happened here. It was there on my first attempt at Day 3, but not on subsequent attempts from the same save. There are no NPCs on the farm anyway.

 

[Ereo]

Things can disappear when they are left on the ground. If you just dropped it because the inventory was full, it wasn't properly placed. I have no idea why it was gone the second time and not the first time. Apparently that's only calculated after you wake up?

Just some general hints:

You can pick up an empty chest (and all types of machine) by hitting it either with the axe or pickaxe.
You can push a chest by walking against it.

You can trash items from inventory if you need space urgently. The trashcan is right from the menu.

You have until 2 am to get to bed, after that you pass out and lose some money. After midnight, you get penalized with increasing lack of energy after sleeping.