I gave up a career as a photographer. I woke one day to find I couldn’t bear the mass of clutter it brought to my computer, iphone, digital life, desk, luggage [I travel constantly], my life, and importantly, mind.

I am now in the final stages of a review and clean up, a simplification of life and business.

Some reasons why, as an artist, you might wish to simplify your life

• More money
  It costs money to gather stuff, it costs money to power, maintain, clean and store it.
• More space (in your studio and home)
  Declutter your life, you may find you could live in a much nicer, smaller, house, apartment, or studio, or just enjoy more free space in the one you have now. Have you anything in storage which you have not used for 6 months? Let it go, right now. Choices: resell it [you’ll be surprised how much money this could bring – use it to buy art materials, or travel for inspiration], reuse it [your friends or the local charity shop may wish to reuse it], or recycle it. If none of the three apply, then bin it. Too many cameras, computers, TVs, phones, sketchbooks, canvases, paints? I was guilty of all of these, except the TV.
• A clearer mind to think and create with
  Creation comes from the core, not the mind.
• More energy
  A clearer mind helps to generate more energy, which dissipates via a cluttered mind.

Some things you can do to achieve this

• Reduce the clutter (start with your bag!)
  If you can declutter your bag, you can upscale the process to a whole apartment, studio and life!
  1. What do you have in your bag or backpack? When was the last time you looked? Take a look, empty it out. I bet you’ve been carrying around all manner of bits and bobs you didn’t know were there, and some that you carried “just in case”.
  2. Strip back to the bare essentials. What do you need? A pencil? A set of pencils? Some colour? Pen, or pens? Which ones? One, four, or twenty four?
  3. Try carrying just one sketchbook and two drawing tools for a few days, I started with an A4 hardcover book (after years of Moleskines, the space was a real treat for my mind, I don’t have to fill all that blank page, I can enjoy it!), a black fine liner, and a black brush pen.
  4. Over the period of a week or so, I then added, as needed, three shades of grey brush pen, and a refillable water brush. These six tools and my drawing book give me a great playground for my mind. Colour may come back later, but right now, the shades and forms I achieve in my drawings (mainly concept studies for bowls that I am designing).
  5. You might want to add your phone, and / or a camera (if you have a phone with both in, then just the one keeps things simpler, that’s why I have an iPhone in my bag with my sketchbook).
• Reduce the clutter (in your studio)
  A scaled up version of the bag exercise.
• Reduce the clutter (in your home)
  Scale the exercise up again. You’ll be getting the hang of this by now, and no doubt really enjoying the process, so go for it!
• Stop buying stuff
  At least for a while, just stop and focus on streamlining, reducing what you have, find the time to work out what you need in your life, instead of muddling along with all the stuff that you’ve gathered as you’ve moved through life.
• Simplify your digital life
  There are many resources on the web for this, but if you run a Mac, check out minimal mac and minimalist mac set up. Check out the tech category at mnmlist for tips on simplifying your social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr etc.)

Further reading on simplifying and minimalist living

• smplst
• zen habits : simple living manifesto
• minimal mac
• minimalist mac set up (via mnmlist)
• mnmlist

Finally

I’m not proposing you wear sackcloth and ashes, live in a grey cell with one chair, one table, etc. This is about rescuing yourself from drowning in the detritus of your life. Stop the flood and start the clean up. Most people admit that they wish life were simpler. Unfortunately, most don’t realise how easily they can change that.

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