Katie,
I have done some of the things you mentioned, and also use the short cut keys to toggle on/off the individual palettes (command-r, command-i, etc). This does get tedious, though. It would be great to have a script that would close or minimize all the palettes and then have them reappear in the same place they were before they were minimized or closed. This would give you the best of both worlds - easy access to tools and information as well as a large screen for drawing.
thanks for your help,
Jack