Gary you are not alone my friend, it is and can be frustrating i know to waste wood but trust me you are not the only one. We all are on that boat together, how else would one learn if we never did that? When i first started messing with creating custom game calls 6 years ago i ruined so much wood, costly wood might I add, in the process. There were more times than i wish to share that i often thought of giving it up altogether but i stuck with it and am glad that i did.
As far as woodworking in general goes, well i have been at since i was a child. now at early adulthood love it more today than i did then.
What you consider and label making scraps really isn't, your really making progress, that's it making progress...a few more years down this road and hindsight will reveal that you indeed made tons of it - progress that is.
As far as that customized shelving unit organizer goes in that walk-in closet of yours, take it from me, go ahead and start working on it at the least a little bit...or else, 10 years will have passed and you still will not have a closet organizer...
start looking for some lumber my friend...:rotflm:
see you around, Chris