I’m always in favour of cleaner and uncluttered website designs, as I think it helps visitors to understand a website much better and generally have a better experience. Too many websites let the design overshadow the content these days. Personally, I tend to favour Edward Tufte’s principle of “Simple design, intense content”.
Here are two galleries I like that specialise in minimal web designs, which I use for inspiration at times. Some of the websites take the minimal approach a bit extreme for my taste, but they’re all good to look at and learn from.
Minimal Sites
Siiimple
One interesting test is to visit some of the websites shown on these and see how easy it is to understand what they do. Then, putting aside all your feelings about the design, judge how you found the overall experience of the site. I’m quite sure you will have found it refreshing.