I started out the same way, I was constantly buying papers and supplies and not doing much with them.
One hint I discovered is to buy a binder and the clear plastic pocket sheets that fit in it. I put my stickers/die-cuts in these i/o having them all together in a envelope. I put C'mas in one, flowers in another, etc. Bc the pockets are clear, you can see what you have.
I also saw someone who had a file folder to hold her papers. I have been wanting to go to Michael's to see if they have one for the larger papers. I have seen them in catalogs so I know they exist.
Most of my scrapbooking supplies are in a large plastic bin that fits under my bed.

I just started my first "real" scrapbook last night (I have one from when i was a kid). So far it's going pretty well. The materials and pictures have been sitting in piles for six months and there's so much I forget what I have. I separated everything into piles - since I'm doing a wedding book, there's the period of preparation before the wedding, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding itself, the reception, our honeymoon, and our new residence. Plus all the little trinkets like tickets, papers, etc.

Maybe you can try laying the page out before you do anything major, that way you can get an idea.

HTH

As for organizing, I have been scrapping for about 8 years. This is how I do it: I use the divide and conquer method. Divide everything by themes: all paper, stickers, die cuts, etc and keep them together so you don't have to look through all your Christmas stuff to find a baby or soccer paper. As for pages, don't start with your most precious or special things. Start on something with a little less importance until you are comfortable. I am so glad I waited on my wedding until I had a few books done.

I hope this helps.

Rebecca

I have a plastic nine drawar rolling unit that I got for about $20-30 bucks at a discount store and a bunch of those plastic in/out boxes for all of my paper which is divided into cardstock/patterned and by color. I have all of my punches, dry embossing, stencils, colored pencils, chalks, stamps etc. in the big plastic drawar unit, and then I have a "crop in style" "paper sticker binder" That was my best thing for getting organized. I had hundreds of stickers, die cuts, alphabets etc. and tried using baseball card holders and other types of clear plastic envelopes, but they just were never the right size and always fell out of their little compartments. This product has a little lip which keeps all of the stuff from falling out. You can get them on the Current website under their scrapbooking supplies, and they have every size of pocket imaginable. It wasn't cheap, but I know I've saved money on stickers because I can actually see what I have and can use it instead of buying more of those fish stickers that I thought I had.