What Mac said.
I have about ten "folders" along the bottom of my desktop (above the taskbar).
They open directly above where they are on the desktop, so very little mouse moving is needed.
One each for Church, Comms, Flying, Fun, Ham, Music, Office, and Utilities. There are anything between 4 and 50 icons in each of those folders.
The desktop has only the stuff I use all the time (25 icons). I wouldn't do it any other way.
The Linux machine, with four "desktops", has the same folder system because the different desktops still have all the same icons in the same place.