As I create projects and progress through life, ultimatley at the end of each project, I end up with the perfect compiled template to date, untill the next one, where I add a few more bells and whistles.
I save the project as a template, open it, and the project still remains. I have to make sure there are no hidden items, then start deleting everything specific to the project. This does get time comsuming, however I can do it faster and faster now, Is there a quick wipe that I don't know about?
I found Transfer projects standards helped me out greatly when starting the templates.
I opened the template and then the project with the changes. Under the Manage Tab of the template project click on Transfer Project Standards and make sure it is looking at the completed project. Transfer what you need.
Now if it is content created you can copy to clip board the items or views wanted and paste into the Template. After I did this a few times I had a very nice template to start with.
Hope this helps you out.