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I have hardware on my 26X that allow the haylards to lead to the cockpit. My question is: If I use these haylards in the cockpit to let down the main and the jib from the cockpit, how do I gather the sails while remaining in the cockpit. Wouldn't the jib and mainsail still have to be gathered on deck. I don't have a self-furler.

Yeah, sounds like they'd be all over the place.

I have a roller furler for the genoa/jib so that takes care of that.

I have my stock main halyard led aft which plops the mainsail into a sail caddy. Then, pushing the hatch forward with my chest and standing in a pot of spaghetti with one foot and with my other foot muddying up the dinette back, I can sling some nifty BYU bungies around the white boiling mass of sail and get it calmed down.

Since I don't have lazy jacks or a sail catcher, when I drop the mainsail it does cover the deck. Of course the boat's always bow-to-wind. I just start at the aft end of boom, pulling slabs of sail to either side of the boom and wrapping with a velcro sailtie. As you move forward along the boom, the mess of sail becomes progressively less unruly.

EDIT: Duane's comment reminded me that not everyone has sail slugs. Slabbing the main described here requires sail slugs. I would not want to be without them.

For a hank-on jib, many would add a downhaul, tied to the top hand and led down the forestay through every other hank. This helps manage the downed jib, holding it in a compact pile on the bow.

The only way to avoid piles of sail on the deck is to add new stuff.

The CDI furler eliminates any issues with the headsail. On the main you need sail slides so you can stop using the bolt rope and even when lowered the sail stays attached to the mast. I have all this and it still doesn't stop the mess on the cabintop unless you add lazy jacks and a top zip sail cover such as this. Without these your still going to be looking at a trip to the mast to clean up the sail mess when you drop them.