I realized last year that my Google Reading experience was sliding downhill at a fast rate because of the number of sites I subscribed to. I just didn’t have time for them all, so I started cleaning it out.
I made myself a rule similar to the rule I have for my closet. Each season, when I switch my wardrobe, I look at the “new” clothes being put into my closet and if I haven’t worn a piece of clothing for the last two seasons I give it away.
Now I look at my Google Reader folders on a regular basis and if I find I’m regularly skipping over a site without reading it when it comes up, I delete it. New sites don’t go into a category folder until at least a month has passed. They stay at the bottom of the list to see if I’m really going to read them and then they get moved or deleted once I know how they are working out for me.