how to organize genealogy?

I’ve researched for 10 years now, I even have a webpage built that doesn’t look too terrible. But, it isn’t professional looking, personal with facts. I have tons of papers all over this room, in boxes and notebooks. Could someone tell me how to “get it all together”??? Thanks in advance!
Thank you all, these are all great ideas, I have “set a date” on calendar to begin to get organized and will use some of each answer. I printed it all! Wendy C, why do we feel guilty? I do, too, because of the mess. It will be very hard to choose a best answer, all were very, very good.

I have my genealogy data organized in a system that involves, two genealogy software programs, ring binders, file cabinets and an Excel spreadsheet.

At this time, I am only actively researching my maternal grandfather’s line, therefore all the direct descendants have the same surname. So I have a binder with a tab for the name of each descendant with their birth year, as many of the names in this line repeat, then I have the following in this order whenever possible:
1) Family group sheet
2) US Federal Census–all found
3) Birth Records
4) Marriage Records
5) Social Security Death Index
6) Obituaries

After the previously stated items, I file the most relevant items that I can locate that document the relationship of the descendants one to the other and their marriages and children. Sometimes proof of relationship can be found in wills, court documents and property records, just to name a few. For example, I found some proof of relationship evidence in Revolutionary War Pension Applications.

I use colored paper to separate people within the tab, such as the wife and children. If I have a lot of collateral’s like siblings of the direct descendant, I file those in another binder or a file cabinet depending on how much data I have on that line under the siblings name and put a note on the US Federal Census in the binder to remind me that I have the information and where it is.

That all might sound a bit complicated but keep in mind that I am doing a very focused research of one line…so I can keep track of it pretty well…I would not recommend trying to research too many lines at one time.

Of course, I am also keeping track of all of these people in FTM 2009 [vetted data] and Legacy 7 [un-vetted data] so if I get too confused about whom I do or do not have information on I can go to those programs and figure it out pretty quickly.

I also keep an Excel spreadsheet that tells me where everything is. I enter a basic one line entry with the name of the ancestor with birth year, spouse and/or parents that tells me where that persons information is located…like what binder or which file drawer and I have paper copies, digital files, a couple of backups of everything plus an online backup just in case everything else fails.

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