Decluttering online

Hello creative person! I know you, like me, would rather be drawing, painting, writing or doing your favorite passionate pursuit. But I have a question for you. Are you a fan of the decluttering fad that’s everywhere these days? OK I understand how important having a tidy space is. We’re currently living in a studio apartment in downtown Philly and sure there’s space but it does feel cramped here sometimes.

However, I am not buying any of the declutter books out there like this one or any of the others…yet. ;-D

Why? Because we moved three times in the past 4 years. So I have thrown away and/or donated more stuff in the last few years than I can even imagine.

But I do think about decluttering my online presence. Do you? I have taken some steps to tidy things up and thought I would share what I have done. Please, let me know what you think. Because I’ve decided having a tidy online presence is perhaps a lesser but vital practice as having a tidy place to live.

So the first online declutter decision happened after I attended a wonderful, free webinar with British painter, Paul Foxton. Check out his wonderful paintings here! He said that he does not have a separate Facebook page for his business. He posts both personal (sometimes very personal as in his post when he nearly died), business and art related news on his personal Facebook page.

Delete Facebook

So, the first thing I did was delete my business Facebook page. Confession here: I’m a really slow learner. I blogged about getting rid of Facebook business page back in July 2013. Oh well, better late than never?

I still have a personal Facebook page and while I’m a bit of delinquent participant, I do enjoy checking in (via my computer only not my phone) and seeing what’s happening in that world periodically. In the future, I will plan to post art, painting and studio related information on this blog and via the personal Facebook profile I still have, too.

Twitter

Here’s where else I have an online presence: Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter. Can you guess which one might be getting the axe? Hmmm? I am deactivating Twitter. Back in the day when I was building websites, I loved Twitter. Why? It was chock full of wonderful people, sharing ideas and knowledge about all things web design, WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite and more.

But I have not used Twitter at all…other than as a link to send out blog posts (like this one) from my blog. It doesn’t seem right to have a Twitter account if I am not going to share and help and contribute. So pretty soon, I’ll be deactivating that online presence.

Shazam, it’s starting to feel pretty tidy around here. But what about the last three places? Here’s my thinking as of today in 2019. LinkedIN is a nice vestige of my previous life in corporate day job world. So just as I have that vintage 80s suit in my closet (shhhh…don’t tell the declutter gurus!!!…except that I think this means I’m ‘following the right order?’) that I can’t throw away just yet, I’m hanging on to LinkedIN for now.

Forgive yourself

I confess that my profile is lame in LinkedIN. Forgive me…and…forgive yourself, too. I know that it’s kinda hard to keep up-to-date on all of these online platforms especially when I’d rather be drawing or painting. You, I’m sure, would rather be doing (fill in your favorite passion here) than tweaking your online profile. So, join me in taking baby steps to do so and then get back at your ‘thing!’

Next up? Instagram…I really enjoy Instagram because I get inspired by the artists I follow. And I am pretty vigilant about keeping the number of people I follow to a number that I can see in 10 minutes or less a day. So, occasionally, I review this account and unfollow people or accounts that aren’t a match for my current pursuits in art. But I love the visual aspect and one or two of the accounts make me laugh out loud (check out awkward family photos for a daily dose of laugher!!!)

Lastly, I do love Pinterest for the simple reason that it helps me keep an organized list of artists and art history movements. So, if I’m reading a pithy and enthralling art history book and I see a beautiful painting like this beautiful Baroque painting, I immediately create a pin and a board so as to see, treasure and view that painting at my leisure.

Future plans

Notice that I have not mentioned how or where I stash and organize and share my own paintings on line. That, dear reader, is a current item on the ‘to do’ list. So stay tuned for more news about that in a future post.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this online declutter experience! Maybe you have some ideas or tips for me about your online decluttering success stories? If so, please do share. Also, what online resources do you enjoy using to support your creative practice?