No, I can’t make my photography minimalistic. There is too much equipment and too much involved in what I shoot to reduce anything photography related. I honestly don’t keep a lot of gear or props. I have what works for me and I leave it at that, just replace things when they need it. However, I mainly shoot cuttings, for one association. It doesn’t leave me with a lot to blog about. Everybody already knows I’ll be at Ada every month shooting the SOCHA show and within the week after the show, I’ll have your photos up. So it’s time to add a little bit of life into my blog and see if I can blog more often. And after the barn work is done, the girls are shuttled to & from school & cheer/games, the one thing occupying my time right now is de-cluttering.

We have moved–A LOT. So with all the moving, I have gotten pretty good at letting stuff go. Every move fills a dumpster, makes trips to Goodwill, and means more stuff sold or given away. The house we’re in now is the smallest one we’ve been in in a while. I like it and we fit okay in it, but it is small. We probably have less stuff than the average family of 5 does in the US, but we are still cluttered and I am working hard to change that. My new favorite blog is by Miss Minimalist and I dearly love her book: The Joy of Less. In fact I love it so much, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read it in the past few months. I have it in the Kindle version, so I read it either on my iPhone with the Kindle app, or on the Kindle my sweet hubby bought me this past Christmas.

I have very few actual books any more–I’ve switched to the Kindle version of my books because I don’t like the space books take up or the weight of books when we move. Once the Harry Potter series is available as e-books (date now moved to sometime in 2012–very disappointing news Pottermore!!), I will be officially book-less. All our music is burned to my iTunes, and the CDs gone. If only so many DVDs weren’t protected, I’d burn them to my computer/iTunes as well. Unlike most photographers, I’m not a Mac person (and have no plans to be any time soon) but I do love my iPhone and having most of my media digital. I spent a couple days home with a sick kiddo and took advantage of the time to scan more paper, photos, memorabilia, and sentimental stuff to my computer. I make sure I have 2 back-ups of anything I move to the digital realm, then destroy the originals. I’m finding I’m much less sentimental these days. I’m tired of finding space to put things, cleaning around them, picking them back up, and so many times in the past–packing and moving them. And I have decluttered some big items lately–wedding stuff, baby stuff (both mine & the kids), etc. There was a time I never would have thought of letting go of some of this stuff. Today–I realize it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t need boxes full of stuff, stored where I never get to see it, to prove who I was, what I did, or that my kids were babies once. I have saved a small box each of very special things, but let the rest go. I’m also finding I love my photos so much more when they are scanned & rotating through my digital photo frame. I very rarely go through all those big, heavy scrapbooks I worked so hard on–if I do, it’s only to find a specific photo. But rotating on my digital frame, I see them more often. So I am working to make sure I have all those heavy albums digitized, then the albums themselves may go. I’m probably going to make some Shutterfly albums using favorite scanned photos, because they take up less space and we actually look at our Shutterfly books–they’re smaller & more fun!

We’ve already done a large wardrobe decluttering, but I’m sure I could fine tune the clothes some more. I’ve done quite a bit of work on the kitchen, but I know it needs another going through. The next major thing that I need to tackle is there are a couple pieces of furniture that have to go. One does nothing but hold those big heavy albums and other “stuff” instead of its original purpose (I don’t need it for its original purpose so we don’t really need it at all). The other does nothing but hold more clutter. The other main area that needs tackling are the girls’ toys. That one is going to be the most difficult because the youngest is not willing to part with much. Being the youngest, s,he has a lot of hand-me-downs so we really need to work on this area. So that’s what’s going on in my house in between the kids, the barn, and the shows. No, we’ll never be extreme minimalists like I’ve read about. We’re a family. We have kids, horses, cows, two big ole diesel-burning duallies, and stuff. We’re never going to pack everything we own in a backpack and travel the world making a living on a laptop. But we can make life simpler where we don’t have to spend all our spare time picking up stuff and cleaning. And that’s a life I can look forward to!

This blog is generally only about my photography, but just thought I would share my feelings on e-books and get another post on here.  I like e-books.  I got a Kindle for Christmas and before that I had the Kindle app on my Iphone.  I love that I can take what would be a shelf of heavy books, such as my books on my cameras, Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography with me to shows in case I need a specific setting or tip on something that I don’t use often.  And the Kindle is only a few ounces in my camera bag versus several pounds of books I would have to haul with me or even more likely, leave the info at home.  No, I don’t need the info often, but when I do it’s nice to have it with me instead of having to call a friend or search the internet on my phone.  Often the only time I get to read for pleasure is when I’m waiting to pick up the girls from school/activities or waiting around the barn and it’s nice to have whatever book I’m reading on my phone.  However, I don’t like E-books sold as PDF’s.  Yes, I can load them on my Kindle, but it often makes the print so tiny it’s hard to read and if I have to read them on my computer, they’re not likely to get read quickly, if at all.  So thanks to my Kindle/Iphone Kindle app, I’ve been able to eliminate a lot of books from my house.  If only the author of one of my favorite fiction series would allow her books to be done in Kindle format, I could pretty much eliminate every one of my personal books.  Yes, I love the feel of an actual book but honestly I just don’t have a lot of reading time any more and being able to carry a novel on my phone works better for me for the few minutes of reading time I can sneak in and the rest of my books are generally reference books so I don’t have to have them in actual book form for the info to be useful.