My scrapspace is 1/2 of our office space and I have a large book shelf that houses all of our albums. I don't have a massive stash of supplies as some people do, so that leaves me room for the book shelf. Thats the trade off and it works for me. The 3 binders last year did include extra pictures because I put our trip pictures into it instead of doing separate albums for those. Our 2011 is completely scrapped and I don't have to go back and scrap any pictures from 2011 because I included them all in project life.
I also spread them into 3 albums so they would not be as heavy to lift off of the shelf. I could have fit everything into 2 albums but they would have weighed more than I am allowed to lift so I opted for the 3rd album.
BTW: You can do this project and fit it all into one album if you don't add any extra pictures!