@darnellarnoult
I think you should have a widget area title ‘Blog Sidebar’ where you need to remove all the widgets you don’t need and just leave the menu one.
For the menu go to Appearances >> Menus and uncheck the option… something like ‘Primary Menu’
You would need to go to Appearance >> Widgets >> then remove any widgets in the Blog Sidebar as was mentioned by salsaturation.
However, to totally remove anything and the fact you do not plan to add any widgets there, there’s a couple ways to remove that sample content widget.
1. modify the theme file
2. use css to hide what is there.
I would recommend the 2nd option, but you will need to use a child theme (which this theme includes) or a plugin for editing CSS (which might be easier for you).
You would need to add this custom css:
.widget-wrapper {display:none;}
Regarding taking the menu location off the top of the page itself, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by this?