How do I create a clean home page?

This will be theme dependent to a degree. And hopefully you are using a Child theme.
But make a Page Template by copying your themes Page.php
Name it : frontpage.php
(add this to top of page)
`/**
* Template Name: frontpage
*
* The “Template Name:” bit above allows this to be selectable
* from a dropdown menu on the edit page screen.
*
* @package WordPress
* @subpackage Twenty_Ten
* @since Twenty Ten 1.0
*/
(here add whatever theme you are using)

Then Add // remove stuff you don’t want on your front page.
Knowing some basic html/ css will help.. again much of this will depend on your theme, as to what changes you can make and not break.