I'm confused about what I need to do. I understand BOSS will sort my load order out but what is this bashing business?
Does creating a bashed patch consolidate your mods into a single mod? What does this achieve? Performance increase?
I've read several threads about this but am still unclear.

Any insight ideally in layman's terms would be much appreciated.
Cheers

Have you read the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1079607-relz-garybash/? Specifically http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1079607-relz-garybash/page__view__findpost__p__15784598?

Now the reason there may be confusion is that while Wrye Mash had existed for Morrowind for quite a while and Wrye Bash for Oblivion - Wrye himself made an announcement that he was not going to play or mod Fallout 3 and turned development over to other Oblivion modders, none of which were keen on Fallout 3 either. The Bash programs generally have a lot of bells and whistles and when configured right can merge in unique and highly customizable ways more than just leveled lists but importing only specific overrides and such.

The creator of FO3edit, Elminster, added a feature to Fo3edit to create a merged patch which does the most basic part of what a bashed patch does which is to merge leveled lists.

Valda came along several months ago with the first succesful port of Wrye Bash called Gary Bash (I'm guessing named after the clones in the game). The bashed patch is still in development while the merged patch is pretty much a done deal. Most overhauls and mod for Fallout 3 were developed mostly with the merged patch in mind and the Bashed patch is not as commonly accepted or supported.

Much of what Fallout 3 modding is owes a lot to Morrowind and especially Oblivion. http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/775917-compatibility-and-you/ may help if even the idea of leveled lists and the rule of one record is confusing. Also this: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes4Mod:Wrye_Bash/Bashed_Patch