Most of the time the first step to troubleshoot an OSX application problem is to login to the Guest account and see if a problem persist. The reason for this - I presume - is that the `~/Library` folder of the guest account does not contain any, possibly corrupt preference files.

Over the years of using my Mac my `~/Library` folder has become cluttered with preference files and folders of applications. Some of these applications are no longer installed.  

Is there a way to "start over"? Some way to delete all existing preferences, and then let the applications currently present populate it again when the application is started?  

Especially the `Application Support` and `Preferences` folder is full of old, irrelevant files.

I know I could do a fresh install, but then if I restore the user from Time Machine obviously the `~/Library` is restored as well.