Starting From Scratch

A couple months ago, my website got hacked and a bunch of spam was infiltrated into my website. I was able to regain access to my account, but have found that the best option to really clean out my site is to start from scratch (I’ve been meaning to revamp my website anyway).

I’ve already exported all of my blog posts, and have stored them on a WordPress.com blog site just to have them as reference and keepsake (I don’t plan on importing these onto my new WordPress website/template). I realized, I also probably need to export my blog post photos to import into the new WordPress in order for those images to keep working.

Anyway, I’m ready to wipe out my database and completely start from scratch, but am a little hesitant to do it before getting advice on the best way to go about it. I don’t want any traces that might contaminate the new website with spam/hacking, but want to make sure I don’t also lose anything important. Is there any advice for the best way to go about it? Perhaps website references as well on how to go about deleting and uploading a fresh WordPress?

Thank you in advance!