On the modloader modpage, is an addon called Deathchest. With it, when you die and have an extra chest in your inv, it drops the chest and places as many of the items in your inv inside of it. Any extras drops around, with risk of dropping into lava.
Personal Chests holds more than a normal single-chest. My suggestion is an in-built feature in personal chests, whereas if you have a personal chest on you when you die, it drops and holds all your items in the spot you die without the need to use Risugami's Mod. Using a personal chest instead of a regular chest would allow -all- items to be stored instead of a single-chest's worth.