Dee Dee,
one way to minimize the space that gets taken up on your computer is to burn the originals to CD or DVD and then only open up those originals when you get an order.

As I said, shows are different than candids or people/pet portraits. I crop all the show shots the same because I know they'll order the initial 8X10. But when I shoot candids or portraits, I crop to the final aspect ratio that makes sense given the subject and the image. Those sessions always yield fewer proofs, too, so I can be more custom on my crops.

I've found that backing up my originals to CD/DVD is always a safe policy. I've had hard drives crash and the information on them unrestorable. Now I back up every shoot to 2 external hard drives and also burn a CD/DVD or 2 if it was a show. I can always re-do my image processing. I'm dead if I lose the only version I have.

Crop the images the way that looks best to you and then see how close that is to a standard size. If it's close, recrop to the standard size. At some point, the images have to fit in a frame so you need to be able to go standard with them.

Jim