Actually, it is to empty your package storage folder. That means helping to save your free disk space. The storage is located at /var/cache/apt/archives/ as it is the place to store all DEB packages downloaded by APT command. When you use GNU/Linux system for a long time, you must have installed many, many software packages; and you will finally find you are running out of disk space because of those packages. Don't worry, deleting those DEB packages does not remove the actual software installed. This article gives you an explanation with pictures.
(apt-get clean works by deleting DEB packages that are unnecessary anymore)
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Before:
I used Trisquel for years so I finally stored so many DEB packages at my storage folder like depicted below. See 800MB total size at status bar.
Cleaning:
I run sudo apt-get clean command as shown below.
After:
Now the storage folder is empty.
Check it out:
You can either use file manager's Properties or Disk Usage Analyzer to check your free space. In my system, I increased 800MB free disk space thanks to cleaning.
See below, your /var/cache directory size should be smaller now.
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