Hi mdb621, and welcome to the myFICO Forums!
Have you had an opportunity to read: The Son of Credit Scoring 101? If haven't, it's a good read, and it'll give you some solid tips about paying debt, instead of moving it around, especially if shifting the debt around isn't goving to save you a ton of money.
So, you have balances on all 29 cards, and you're starting to fell overwhelmed? It sounds like the perfect time for a "get out of debt" plan, and budget. First, don't despair. There's a few tens of thousands of us here in the FICO Forums who have been there, and lived to tell the tale. 
More importantly, we'll hang with you until you get it done! Next, if you haven't done so already, sit down and make a list of all of your cards (a Spreadsheet might work best), the credit limits, the balances, the APRs, and the minimum due each month. It should look something like this:
| Card | Limit | Balance | APR | Minimum | ||
| 1 | Amex Blue Sky | 7500 | $ 5,000.00 | 5.00% | ||
| 2 | Your Credit Union Visa | 5500 | $ 3,000.00 | 13.90% | ||
| 3 | BankAmericard Visa | 2500 | $ 720.00 | 10.99% | ||
| 4 | Small Bank Mastercard | 2500 | $ 961.00 | 18.99% | ||
| 5 | Jewelry Emporium | 2000 | $ 43.00 | 18.99% | ||
| 6 | TV Warehouse | 3500 | $ 119.00 | 22.90% | ||
| 7 | etc… | 5600 | $ 400.00 | 7.99% | ||
| TOTAL | $ - |
After you make the list, copy and paste it here. Lots of our members would be more than happy to give you their $.02 on what we call a "debt snowball". The idea is to pay the minimums on all but one card, and throw all of the rest of your money (designated for paying down debt) at either the card with the lowest balance, or the card with the highest APR, or whatever first card that you've designated for payoff. You keep on, in that manner until one-by-one each card is paid off.
You don't want to start closing any cards... Not just yet, anyway. Another good read is Closing Credit Cards by Fused. One of the things that he talks about is utilization. Utilization is 30% of your credit score. As you pay off cards, and have zero balances, your utilization margin will improve, and will ultimately raise your credit scores as you cross thresholds of percentages. You didn't mention what your overall utilization was, but closing those cards (while they'd remain on your credit reports for up to ten years, and would continue to factor positively in your age of accounts) would remove them from the utilization calculations. Ideally, if your utilization is high, you'd want to keep those lines open as you pay them off, to help your score to rise.
Amongst the most important things to do-- Stop using your credit cards. <-- At least until you're completely out of debt, and then make it your business to only charge what you can afford to PIF each month. Make a household budget, and stick to it. Make it as tight as you can stand, and then squeeze just a little tighter. Throw as much $$$ as you can afford at your debt. If you can, figure out ways to raise extra money, like garage sales, or selling the stuff in your closet & basement on eBay. Or, what about getting a part-time job?
And did I mention to not worry? This is very much doable! Be sure to come back and post the info about all 29 of your cards, and add in how much money, over and above the minimums, you have to throw at your debt. Our members are awesome! We'll help you get it figured out.
You could try the snowball effect. Start with paying off the lowest balances, then roll that amount into your next lowest balance paying them off one at a time. That will decrease the amount of accounts with a balance and make it easier. Just a suggestion.
July 2013 score: EQ FICO 819, TU08 778, EX "806 lender pull 07/26/2013
Goal Score: All Scores 760+, Newest goal 800+
Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Current scores after adding $81K in CLs and 2 new cars since July 2013
EQ:809 TU 777 EX 790 Now it's just garden time!
June 2017 update: All scores over 820, just pure gardening now.
