Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or you can just freely allow all cookies from any website that wants to set them (sites will be happy and working), but only for current browser session. You have to remember to restart the browser every now and then, though. Then use whitelist to selectively allow cookies from some "friendly" sites to be stored permanently.
Or use an extension like Cookie Auto-Delete. It clears all cookies set by a given tab when that tab is closed, and lets you whitelist domains which can set cookies which won't be deleted.
Thanks, that's much better than my approach. This is exactly the extension I needed, as it makes cookie management more straightforward and transparent to me.
I switched yesterday and couldn't be happier. :)