I do not know this kind of Cleanup to be absolutely necessary, but it is still my own practice. I believe it is necessary to have a copy of the default theme for any given version of the WordPress core as a fallback in case your own theme (if different) breaks, but I have heard some plugins can still add to your overall overhead even while deactivated. Also, I have learned not all plugins completely remove all of their effects/affects on your installation when removed, and one plugin author even later made a cleanup plugin for me to get all things back to where they had once been.
Okay, well thank you for taking the time to read my post and respond, LeeJoseph. I think I have a pretty decent idea. I finally decided on a theme that pretty much had the works, and supported most plugins. I think I’ll just keep like a 2012 — or something basic, as a backup, and delete the 10 or 12 others I downloaded … lol, ad well as the 15 or so plugins I have no use for or aren’t compatible with 3.5, and the 15 banners I’ve uploaded but don’t use.
Then I’ll see if that affects my Yslow score, or what not, but at the very least, at least I’ll save on bandwidth.
Thanks again for your time, LeeJoseph!
Jason
Basics here http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Housekeeping
Being database-driven software, the performance of your WordPress blog will be impacted by what’s in the database.
Here’s a useful article about cleanup and maintenance
http://www.maketecheasier.com/8-useful-tricks-to-clean-up-streamline-your-wordpress-database/2009/02/17
I would advise that you remove all plugins that are not in use. This will minimize your risk. In addition you can use “P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler)” plugin to run an analyses on your existing plugins.
