How can I "clean out" my iCloud storage on my iPad?

Lately I have been getting messages saying that I con't have enough space in my iCloud storage to backup my iPad and lately my iPad has been acting up and going really slow, freezing, and closing out apps. How do I "clean out" my iCloud storage so that I will have enough room? I saw an option to delete the backup, but I don't want to do that because that deletes everything...right? And I need a lot of those apps backed up. What should I do?