Advice about removing cruft?

[Mark Allums <mark@allums.com>]

In an effort to improve system stability without completely 
reinstalling, how would someone pick and choose things to trim or remove 
from a Desktop/Workstation?  My favorite and main Linux/Debian machine 
is flaky right now, and I don't want to commit the time and mental 
effort to completely nuke from orbit [it's the only way to be sure]. 
Also, I'd rather not rely on automated tools, especially, but not 
necessarily only, apt-get autoremove.  I realize I haven't given you 
specifics yet, but I'm looking at where best to start, besides just 
removing unused packages.  Systemic cruft in particular, e.g., daemons 
or services loaded that are redundant or silly, such as tracker.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mark