Early on in my career I was working as an assistant for Horace Bristol (one of the original Life magazine staff photographers). Bristol and I hit it off right away and built a relationship that transcended more than just employer/employee. He became my friend and my mentor, a relationship that lasted until he died, about 10 years later.
One of the things he bestowed upon me, several times during our friendship was the importance of organizing your work, sooner rather than later. One day he pulled open one of the dozen or so drawers in a wooden dresser he kept in his house. Inside were several rows of 2 1/4 negs, stacked one layer deep, filling the drawer. This was just one drawer of about 12 in the dresser, and there was yet another filled the same.
Check it out here.