iOS 9 will be of benefit then since it will allow you to remove apps do the update then install the apps you had back on it. Of course that doesn't help today and honestly you won't get all of the iOS 9 features that Apple touts anyways since they have to cut them back due to older models not being able to use them.
That said I always recommend doing a clean update, factory reset, do the install then you can either restore from a backup or install what you want. Sometimes you will find the stuff you removed just isn't what you really want or forgot to remove.
08-23-2015 09:38 PM