How do I delete the files on my hard drive but keep all the applications?

I have an old MacBook Pro. By old, I mean abiut three or four years. I recently upgraded to Lion, but I have so many files that my system is forever showing thte rainbow spinner. I copied everything to an external hard drive, and would like to erase everything but my applications. Is there an easy way to do this?

Ok....Here we go.....
First open disk utility - then hit verify your disk.
Once that's done, verify your disk permissions - hit repair disk permissions if there are errors.
Once that's all done, restart your macbook.
Now you've done all those, delete all the files you've copied over to your backup/external drive.
If you've made folders for them, you can safely delete them.  Only do this if you've made copies of those files in your external drive.
most of those files will probably in your document/movies/pictures folder.  If you've copied them over to your external then you can delete them.  Be sure you have copies before you delete them.
also delete anything in your download folder.
once you've done those, go to the appstore and download ccleaner.  it is a small yet effective hard drive cleaner.  no advance settings to mess around with.  it will just delete your cache files and old log files.
good luck.
PS - to delete some of them you must move your mouse over it, tap once then keep your finger in the shift button then use your arrow keys to highlight them.  once you've highlighed those files, right click on them then move to trash.

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