How to manage leaves?
I have a very similar yard as yours.  I too went through this process my first few years living at the house.  Paid for people to haul leaves away and such.  After a few more years of honing the process it is really simple.  


Identify good areas for leaves to end up.  For me it is depressions near the driveway, the street, and right next to the large trees.
Rake leaves out of hard to reach places or rake to the point that it makes doing step 3 easier.
Start away from your target areas.  Mulch your leaves and spit them out towards your target areas.  You will have to inch your way with the lawnmower to the target areas back and forth.  Yes you will leave deposits in your yard but unless you are leaving huge amounts these will only enhance your grassy areas.  (For some parts of the yard you may need to rake leaves to grass or to driveway - yes I mow my driveway!)
Use blower to better disperse clippings.  An example here is 50% of my front yard clippings go to street.  The first 8-10 feet of yard near the street obviously contain more clippings on them.  I use the blower to get them to the street.  Then when in the street I use the blower to disperse the clippings.  On day one I might have a 1 foot mound of clippings near my edge.  After a few days of blowing a little of the clippings at a time... clippings gone, happy neighbors.  The blower breaks apart the clippings piles.


Any plan to not mulch the leaves is futile in my opinion.  My way is raking maybe for 2-3 hours twice a year, lawnmower 5-6 times times an hour, and blower 5-6 times times 20 mins.  I was spending 10x that my first few years trying to move leaves or bag leaves or send them to a compost.  Even putting them on a tarp and burning them took forever.