How to get rid of stuff from the hard drive

Our family iMac, with a 500GB hard drive, has only 5 GB of space left. Is there a quick, efficient way to get rid of duplicate stuff, large files, unused programs that just take up space?

take a look @ [WhatSize|http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize>.
also, here's some reads to peruse:
Your Mac needs adequate hard drive space to operate normally. How full can a drive be before it's too full? There is no hard and fast rule that says “X” amount or “%” of free drive space is needed. A low amount of RAM requires more drive space for Virtual Memory’s swap files.
Problems from insufficient RAM and free hard disk space are discussed in this link
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/lackofram.html
Here’s some general guidelines for minimum hard drive free space:
1. As a general rule, your available space should be 5GB as an absolute minimum as it generally requires that much free space to perform an Archive and Install of Mac OS X and still preserve some free space for VM swap files.
2. Some say that your hard drive should have at least 5% of it's capacity available for use. Still others say 10% to 15%. If you routinely process complex graphics and videos, even more space is required.
Look at these links about freeing up more space.
Where did my disk space go?
_*http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum38&Number=770243*_
Download & use WhatSize described in this link or Disk Inventory X @ _*http://www.derlien.com/*_
Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
_*http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html*_
Amazing Disappearing Drive Space
_*http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/TigerMisc.html*_
Increase HD Free Space
_*http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/275191-how-easily-increase-hd-free-space-lap top.html*_
How to free up my disk space
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
JGG

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btw it's set not to copy photos into the iphoto library
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Message was edited by: Ingo2711

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Ok... I need to know how to read a .txt file from the
hard drive... I have an example on how to read from a
disk, but I don't have a disk drive. I could be
confusing terminology, but I don't think I am. Here
is the code I have for reading from a disk.. please
let me know how I should change it to read from a
hard drive.The code will be the same, regardless of where the file is located. It's just the filename that will be different.
Also, when the error pops up, it says that it can't
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Thanks Carol

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Thank you and hope it all made sense

Unfortunately it is not making enough sense for me to try to make real suggestions.
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I really get lost on your fourth paragraph.
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How to get rid of stuff from the hard drive

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