life is one big project (Score 1)

I agree with others who say that OCD asset management of literally everything (inventories etc) is overkill, but there are still a lot of important things that end up lost if you don't have a way of not only storing them, but also accessing them when/where you need them. While it's easy to discount the author's overwhelmed status, it's important to keep context that we're living in an age that's overcrowded by information like never before. Learning what's not important is the beginning but sadly, people seem to continue to expect of us we're somehow still tracking with most of it.

My wife and I have struggled with keeping our family organized and while this was primarily an issue with keeping track of things, we've found the Cloud to save us on most (but not all) levels. The fact that we're also Apple users I'm sure causes our approach to not necessarily be right for all of you

For names & dates (things I am worst at remembering), we use Addressbook and iCal along with our iPhones to synch with our MobileMe account. I'm sure there's nerdier/cheaper alternatives but it works for us to keep a common addressbook and calendar that can be updated from anywhere via phone or from desktop/laptops at work & home.

For notes & tasks (something Apple seems to largely ignore), I've dabbled with the GTD app Things, but that falls apart in a multi-user situation. Instead, we've turned to a free 1-project account with Basecamp (37signals.com) and created a project called "Life". We then use the slick ruby-on-rails web interface along with the iPhone app Headquarters to manage & schedule our tasks for each other. We even use it to manage our grocery list by posting a task for that and adding comments as things come to mind.

For other random web links, photos, etc, we post stuff to Facebook when we want it to be public. Facebook blows as an archiving tool (and as a private place) though, so it's definitely wise to have a desktop-based photo manager that lets you organize things and back them up (we use iPhoto but Picasa seems good as well).

Nifty tip for organizing yourself financially: Mint.com has a great secure finance aggregator to give you a central dashboard for all your various loans/accounts/investments/budgets.