Photo Organization

I need a photo genie. Earlier this week, I went looking for a baby picture of my son for school only to realize that my photos are (a) a mess and (b) mostly digital and (c) limited by the time I got to child #3. I am excellent at organizing my digital photos. They are organized by year, month and event (YYYY-MM - event). 

It's magical because I can just search by any of those things and making our annual MyPublisher/Kodak/Shutterfly/who-ever-has-the-best-coupon-code photobook is a cinch because I take 3-5 photos per month or special event and drop them into the book editing software, add a little text and SHAZAM! send that to the printer! 

not all coupon codes are created equal and I would highly NOT recommend
canvas bound photo books when you have young children (2004),
even paperback is risky (2005-2010)...

Now, my pre-decent-digital camera photos are stored in a cardboard box, actually 2 cardboard boxes... 

 I forgot to take a before shot - the one on the left is now organized and full of baby books, some large unframed photos, frames without photos, my graduation caps (white was high school, black was college), BS hood and a soccer jersey from my travel team. The one on the right had the frames you see which are family portraits (not hanging b/c we rent this place and where I'd like to hang them is wallpaper), our wedding album, wedding photo proofs, all the photos from the disposable cameras at our wedding (really, Kevin?), 2 photoboxes of photos, more photos in envelopes, professional and school photos and more photos just tossed in there.

one of the boxes of photos - 9x12" full of my photos before I met my husband -
that one on top is my 18th birthday party that I had 4 days before heading to college!

I'm ready for some organization... photo boxes are purchased and labeled by person, family and other people (okay - so it's mostly Really Awesome Photo Greeting Cards).

and now they fit in the larger of the 2 boxes and I can just pull out a box when I need a photo of someone or have a new photo!

Any tips for staying organized? what do I do when I need a box for some other project?

I'll leave you with this adorable hat that I haven't listed yet. Don't forget to visit Hamburke's and become a fan on facebook!