Step 1- Remove all image subreddits
Step 2- Remove all default subreddits
Step 3- Subscribe to small subreddits and heavily modded ones like /r/askscience
Step 4- Don't venture outside your walled garden unless you want to jerk off
You are now subscribed to 8 subreddits and reddit is almost a sane place.
This seems like a good place to suggest some subreddits that I enjoy:
/r/BreakingDad (Private, for dads only)
This really is the way to do it. I subscribe to small enough/few enough subreddits that I actually see every single link posted to them (I know because I hide them all after I view them, and run out quite often). And most of them are things I'm actually interested in hearing about.
If I want to relax and just read a bunch of easily consumable content, I go to /r/all.