Going with a 1x drivetrain is pretty popular, and it works for many situations.

Try riding with the chain in the middle ring up front, and ride as you would, but only use the rear derailleur. See how you like it.
If you do like it, you can clean up the drivetrain by removing the extraneous rings and the cables. You'll need to either keep the front derailleur as a guide or use something like this http://www.paulcomp.com/chainkeeper.html to keep the chain from derailing when in your lowest and highest gears.

You can fine tune the ratios, as has been mentioned - say a 44T front with an 11-32 cassette.

That's the best way to do it on the cheap.

If you want simplicity and utility and a similar gear range, an internally geared hub is an elegant solution, but at a cost.