How to find files that either shouldn't be there or are eating up memory

Hi,
I download a lot. (I have 12 TB external and I've used it all -- several times.) I'm afraid that at some point I must have downloaded something I shouldn't have, as my computer has gotten slower and slower over the year. Is there a way to find out what has been added to my OS/computer that wasn't in the orignial instal?
Also, is there an easy to follow tutorial that explains the the data generated in the Activity Monitor? (The CPU might show 94% idle, the System Memory 12 of 16 GB free, and Disk Activity, Disk Usage, and Network all at the very low end of the usage bar, but it still takes a bit of time to process my requests.) I'd like to better learn how to trouble shoot on my own.
Thank you much,
OSX 10.8.2
1TB
16GB
2.8GHz Corei7

Remove everything from your login items here:
 > System Preferences... > Users & Groups | Login Items
by selecting the entire list, and hitting the '-' minus button underneath (do not check the 'Hide' boxes).
Restart the mac and test to see if the slowness remains.
NOTE: You might want to take a screenshot of the login windows panel (use 'Command-Shift-4', move the cursor over the panel, hit the spacebar and click mouse or trackpad) before doing the above procedure so that you have a record of what was in the list.
If the problem is solved, you can start adding necessary items (those you need to run on login) one at a time. Restart the mac and test after adding each to determine which one causes the slow downs).
If removing everything from login items doesn't solve the problem, take a look at what 3rd party apps you have installed. MacKeeper? Antivirus software? LogMeIn? Something you're running is hogging resources. Check what's using up all the %CPU in Activity Monitor.app.

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How to find files that either shouldn't be there or are eating up memory

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