This tip may sound a little like a football play but it definitely is a classic trick to keep in your playbook.  It's called the Over and Back scenario.

The ability to turn layers off or freeze them greatly enhances the ability to edit objects by getting things out of the way for you.  But what do you do if the objects that are in your way are on the same layer?  A simple solution is to select the geometry that is in your way, and with Ortho turned on, simply move the selection set of offending geometry using direct distance entry a set distance. Make sure that the distance doesn't land your selection set into other geometry though.  This will make the selection easily selectable again.  After editing you can then move the selection back the same distance into the original position.  The concept is similar to Paste to Original Coordinates on the Edit pull-down menu.

Here's an example.  Let say that the extents of your drawing are less than 800' in the X and Y planes. By selecting the geometry that gets in your way for editing and moving it 1000' to the right you will now be able to do your editing.  Now move the conflicting geometry back 1000' to the left. This is assuming that the Ortho is turned on each time you move the geometry.  This scenario avoids having to create and delete a layer to turn on and off or re-position the objects using multiple Snaps and moves to orient the objects to their original positions.  Pick distances that are easy to remember, 10, 100, 1000.  The distances should also be consistant between drawing sessions so that you can easily remember what distance you typically move objects.  This trick also works quite well if you're working in 3D and geometry is getting in your way of editing or more importantly, getting in the way of your isometric views.