For a while now, I've been installing my programs like this:

<download the program>

<untar the program>

<./configure & make & checkinstall>

Now at this point Ive got the program installed, a package in the current directory, and a whole lot of source files left over. What I have been doing at this point is putting the source files in my /home/user directory, and moving the newly made package to /usr/src/packages. This seemed to work for a while, but not my /home/user directory is getting very full. Is there any easier way to do this? If I install a program with the checkinstall tool, do I really need to keep all of the source files around?

I'm just a little confused about how I should be managing my packages on slackware, Im not sure of the "normal" procedure or anything. How does everyone else do it?

No, you don't need to keep the source, you can keep the package that was generated for later install or don't keep it at all.

So lets say I just downloaded a new program that requires me to build it from source. I go through ./configure, make, and then checkinstall. I'm left with a directory full of source files and the file.tgz. I can save the .tgz file as I have been in /usr/src/packages, and then just "rm -rf" the directory that I used to configure and make the file? And I will still be able to run the program at a later time?

Yes, make sure that checkinstall told you that it installed the package, otherwise install it using: installpkg pkgname.tgz
The .tgz file (a package) contains the compiled program so there's no need to keep the source. Also when you install it is extracted from the package and copied where it was told to (this info is in the .tgz file) so you can delete the .tgz file too (it's useless to keep it unless you want to install it again later without recompiling). A file is created in /var/log/packages telling which files the package uses so it can later be deleted (you can delete your tgz generated file as the uninstall information is on the packages dir).

Oh ok, thank you very much for the information. I guess I've been saving alot more than I needed to be, which has been cluttering my home directory. Thanks again.