> I try to keep my projects organized but when I open up a project I seem to
> get all the other timelines in other projects opening up
That's not possible, Phil, unless those other projects are also open. What you're talking about is probably having multiple project files open. You think you've closed the timelines for Project A, but when you open a Sequence in Project B, all those timelines from Project A open at the same time.
Learn this shortcut: CONTROL-W. If you use APPLE-W to close your timelines, you've closed the timeline *window*, not the actual timelines themselves. The minute you ask the timeline window to reappear, say when you open another Sequence, all those timelines you thought you closed will come back up. When you want to close a timeline and open another one, click on the correct tab in the Timeline window, and press CONTROL-W. This closes the tab -- and leaves other tabs in that window open.