Outliner is a good thing to use - make sure however to close or at least minimize it before using some of the plugins that add considerable amount of geometry to your model (like the Fur plugin or such) as SU will try update it instantly and you will get lags very easily.
As for layers, here is a good video why not to put ungrouped geometry on other than Layer 0 as in SU, layers are merely for controlling visibility and not for separating geometry.
[flash=600,470:2givdic7]http://www.youtube.com/v/fBdP499iw0Y?fs[/flash:2givdic7]