In the future, you should try to keep up on trimming yearly, because you'll achive better results. Waiting until you have a big mess, and then busting out the loppers, usually results in an unsightly trimming job for a while. The insides of bushes and trees a lot of times will die off because the inner leaves will get no sunlight. If you just grab the loppers and start cutting, you'll end up with a mass of sticks, and no leaves. Eventually things fill back in, but if you were to trim lightly each year, you'd never lose those inner leaves, so things stay full and looking good.

So, ultimately, you have to visualize what it is you want, and work from there. Dropping trees is a big deal, because they take a long time to grow, so you better be absolutely sure before you cut anything down. I am upset because the previous home owner planted 3 norway maples and one freeman maple in my yard, but planted them wrong. They apparently never cut or untangled circling roots when they planted them, and they planted too deep. They also never pruned the trees to establish a strong framework. Now I have 3 norways dying from girdling roots, and a freeman maple with 3 trunks that are splitting. I NEED to cut some down, but don't WANT to because it'll take a long time to have a new tree grow in. So, it's all up to you, but as I mentioned, without pics, we can't really know whether you need to drop trees or not.

Joe