I would like to re-install my OS and then copy over existing files in order to make things faster, what is the best approach for this?
I currently am on the most recent version of Mac OS Catalina. I have a mid-2014 Macbook Pro and my system files have a lot of left over applications and other junk that I feel is making it slow. For example, inside the ~/Library folder there are applications which no are compatible. However, I have custom files I would like to retain, such as the /Users/<username>/Library/Messages folder or /usr/local/bin scripts I would like to keep.
What is the best way for migrating data I need into a fresh OS install? Time Machine appears to include too much stuff, which just copying and pasting folders under /Users/<username> may not be sufficient. Thanks for any ideas!