TLDR: Which tools do I use, how do I mod or fix my Skyrim and how do I manage my mods?

Just for completeness, I add my collection of modding tools to this blog. This includes the tools that I use as an enthusiastic  player with far beyond 350 mods in my main games and on the other hand the tools that I use as an aspiring (but still bloody noice) mod creator

Tools as a player

• Mod Organizer 1 = my main tool to get my profiles and vast amount of mods under control
• TES5Edit = the swiss army knife to either understand what mods are doing, cleaning the dirty ones or just to fix little things quick and dirty
• Mator's Merge Plugins = the best thing to cut my number of mods down to a managable few
• Mator Smash = to solve mod conflicts .. though I am not using it to it's full power.... yet
• Markdf's Fallrim Tools = to clean my save files ... or at least check them in regular intervals
• IronBrother8800's NIO Cleaner = to clean the skse cosave of bloat and speed up my save/load sooo much
• Notepad++ = for all editing purposes

.. and as a modder: getting ready for the CK

• skyrimeditor.ini and skyrimeditorprefs.ini https://www.loverslab.com/blogs/entry/7765-entrails-under-the-hood-my-ini-files
• unpackaging scripts.rar as a mod in my left pane
• adding the SKYUI SDK as a mod in my left pane
• making sure SKSE/scripts are available as a mod in my left pane

Video Guides & Tutorials

• Gamerpoets
  • Mod Organizer ( S.T.E.P. ) Video Tutorials https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/53790
  • Gamerpoets MO1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHgULB431Os&list=PLlN8weLk86XhxbjEbQ6S7hG75u_HdU60t
  • Gamerpoets MO2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG3eqyNOByw&list=PLlN8weLk86Xh3ue76x2ibqtmMramwQmHB
  • Gamerpoets modding Skyrim general - it's tools in there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP13Fc1v1r4&list=PLlN8weLk86XjyJvXZ2MDBJRyeBPDMKZqx
• Gopher
  • ModOrganizer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4ZQpzf_iAE&list=PLE7DlYarj-DcLS9LyjEqOJwFUQIIQewcK
  • TES5Edit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw3g_N1jcZQ
• Mator's Merge Plugins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFsHhRBilfY&list=PL0HT5brYH2MMH376LwQfkjbjz8R7pk_mh
• Im still looking for good video guides
  • Mator Smash ... ?
  • NIO Cleaner ... ?
  • Fallrim Tools ... ?
  • not for myself, but for others and for the sake of completeness. So I can add them here
• Mastering the Creation Kit is a whole questline in itself :  https://www.loverslab.com/blogs/entry/7679-window-peeking-or-how-do-i-learn-to-love-the-creation-kit
• Rydin's tips for using Mod Organizer https://www.loverslab.com/blogs/entry/4058-tesvskyrim-support-mod-organizer-tips/

References

• Fallrim Tools https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/76776
• Mator Merge PlugIns https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69905
• Mator Smash https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/90987
• ModOrganizer1 https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1334
• NIO Cleaner https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/3786-netimmerse-override-cleaner-skse-co-save-cleaner-utility/
• Notepad++ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
• Papyrus Compiler Plus https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/74672
• SkyUI SDK https://github.com/schlangster/skyui/wiki
• TES5Edit https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25859