Wow, that's a lot of questions. I suggest going to the library or bookstore and getting a basic houseplant care book if you're in this for the long haul. (Try to get one written in the U.S. - I have a lot of respect for British gardeners, but their books use a lot of different product names than we do.)

Look at the drainage holes at the bottom of the pots. If there are roots sticking out the holes, it's time for a bigger pot. If not, turn the plant upside down and knock it out of its pot. If the rootball is full of roots and stays stuck together in the shape of the pot, it needs a bigger pot. If it falls apart or there is lots of soil without roots, stick it back and wait a year.

When moving to a bigger pot, DO NOT overdo it. If you put a plant into too big of a pot, the soil stays soggy, the roots rot, and the plant dies. For plants your size, go up 2", from an 8" to a 10", for example. Then next time you repot (in a year or two or three), go up another size. (Unless you want to keep the plant small, then you can rootprune and keep the same size pot, but we'll save that for Houseplants 201!) Use a good soilless potting mix - ProMix is ideal. DO NOT use topsoil, or garden soil, or cheap discount brand soil. Plastic pots are fine. Make sure they have holes in the bottom so extra water can drain - you can use the ones with attached saucers or just stick whatever kind of tray, bowl, etc. you have under it.

If you're putting them outside, move them gradually from a shady spot to a sunnier one. I wouldn't recommend putting any of them into full Texas sun, but maybe a Texan can give you better advice about that! If you move them from indoors to outdoors suddenly, the leaves will get sunburned (whitish tan scorch marks). Start in a very shady spot and gradually increase the light. 100 degrees is hotter than ideal - most plants start to stress at around 90 to 95 degrees. A rare day at 100 is OK, but I wouldn't do it if you have many of them. The spathiphyllum in particular will not like a lot of sun and will need LOTS of water in the heat - I suggest keeping it indoors all year. The cyclamen prefers shade and cool temperatures too.

I skip the pebbles altogether but some people use them.

Most of your plants should get dry to the touch on top before you water again. They will not do well if kept soggy. Once a week may or may not be enough, depending on how potbound they are and how bright and warm your home is. They will need less water in the winter than during the rest of the year.

The spathiphyllum likes more water - water it when the top is just barely damp. If it gets too dry, it will wilt dramatically and look dead, but give it water and it will bounce back. The cyclamen also should be watered similarly, when the top is barely damp.

Hi Frog, sorry about your loss but now onto taking care of your treasures.
The most important thing IMO about houseplants is 90% of the time they die from overwatering. They only need no more than 1 inch from the outside of the rootball to the inside of the pot. Otherwise there is a tendency to overwater and they rot and die. Now is probably the time in your area or in the next month or so to repot but ONLY if they need it. If you have roots growing out the bottom or around the sides then it is time. Never let a plant grow into a pot that it is too big for.
Numbers 1 and 3 might be in too large of pot, but only you can tell for sure. See if you can pull them out and look at the root ball. #3 can go in a NE window, no direct sun.
#1 likes sun, but beware of the hot afternoon sun.
For #5, yeah you can cut it back as far as you want and will get new growth just below your cut. Scheff's like bright light, but not the hot direct sun you may get.

If you do repot make sure you use well draining soil with perlite and not a lot of peat. It gets hard and then is almost impossible to get wet again and remove and get rid of it. Make sure what ever type of pot you choose that it does have holes in the bottom. Whether you use the trays attached or the clear plastic ones is your choice. I don't like the clear plastic ones and they get ugly and can crack and leak over time. You will be able to put outside some of them but I wouldn't put #3 out.

Lots of other people on here will give your great advice. You can also pick up a houseplant book or even your local library.

Thank you both for all the great information. It is trurly appreciated. I think that the rubber plant and monstera need to be repotted in the next size up. The roots are coming out of the top of the pot on both plants and are hanging over the side. The Monstera is so full that it seems to be falling out of the pot, I'm hoping a 12" will be big enough. The dirt on both of these is very compacted around the roots. Do I remove this and put all the roots in fresh soil or just put what comes out of the old pot in the new one and fill around it with new soil? I will get a book on houseplants asap. Do they have houseplants for dumbies =)?

I would definately loosen the dirt around the root ball.
You can trim the roots some, but if you trim a lot from roots then you should prune it back some also. New soil can't hurt it if it is the right type. Don't get the cheap store brand stuff and also try to get it without fertilizer. You can control the feeding much better yourself.
For books, some have been recommened on other threads. Check reviews on amazon or bn.com. I've got a really old hyponex one before houseplants were cool.
If you have pets or small children I believe your dieffenbachia is poisonous. I would take it to a local nursery perhaps they can help you on the brown spots if you can't post a pic of it.

They have a book called The houseplant survival manual, it is kind of pricy, but I absolutly adore it! It gives you the info on light, watering, temperature, fertilizing, soil, repotting, how long they live and propagation.
I would change the soil completly when you transplant though.
I get brown spots on my Deffenbachias sometimes, I have not pinpointed the cause yet, but it doesn't happen that often. I origianlly thought it was from too much sun, but I experimented by moving all 6 plants into various degrees of light and they all still get them.
Peace lilies like to be slightly rootbound, putting them in a pot that is too big will cause you a few problems, I have one that I did that to a year ago and it was a disaster, it is doing much better now, but I thought I had lost it.

Okay, so far I have repotted the deffenbachia and peace lily. They were both severely root bound. The roots were coming out the bottom of the pot and had a lot of roots growing back up the side of the pot almost reaching the surface. I loosened the roots from the root ball and potted them in fresh potting soil. I've determined that the brown spots on the deffenbachia are from sun burn. I think I put it outside too quickly. I've trimmed off all of the brown leaves because they started looking really bad. Are you supposed to trim off the the whole stalk with the leaf or just the leaf itself? After reading about other peace lily problems, I'm concerned that I might have it in too big of a pot. It has about 2" in between the plant and the side all the way around. Is that too much space? I haven't figured out how to post pictures yet, but if someone would be willing to let me email a picture to them for their opinion..please let me know. Also, on the peace lily, there is a small stem containg two leaves coming off a main stem and is really leaning like it's not attached well. I don't think it has it's own roots. Can I pull this off and pot it?

I prefer to keep my plants in smaller pots. The monstera likes to be pot bound. I cannot keep peace lilys alive but I don't think over potting that plant is a problem. It is easier to keep it from drying out if it is in a bigger pot. when I first read your post my thought was-give the peace lily away. I just cannot get that plant to grow. Sheffleras are pretty easy to grow. They can grow into a big tree in the wild. If you do a google search, you should be able to find lots of pictures. If your plant is not over potted, you could just sit back and watch it grow and maybe you might like the shape. Put it in an east window or filtered light. Don't over water it. Let it get adjusted to it's new environment and then give it a little fertilizer. I absolutlely love my syngonium. It just grows and grows. I keep mine out of direct sunlight and give it something to climb on. I keep this plant underpotted as well. Last year I cut it way back, freshed up the soil but used the same pot and it looks wonderful right now