If you use bash (or zsh, and maybe others), hit ^L (control-L) to clear the screen. From the bash(1) manual:
clear-screen (C-l)
Clear the screen leaving the current line at the top of the screen. With an argument, refresh the current line without clearing the screen.
A raw "cd" with no arguments will take you back to your home-directory. Of course "~" is one less character to type, but on the off-chance you didn't know.
I clear the screen a lot, but I use Cmd+K to clear the whole Terminal.app screen or Cmd+L to clear the last command (and its output) on Mac, rather than using the `clear` command. I use Bash, not sure if it works on other terminal emulators.
clear-screen (C-l) Clear the screen leaving the current line at the top of the screen. With an argument, refresh the current line without clearing the screen.