If you mean the Taskbar, you can also use your mouse to drag it down. Place the cursor on the top edge of the bar and the cursor will change to double arrows. Drag down and release the mouse button. To restore, drag it back up.
But to be able to access these icons easily and still have a clean desktop: right click on the Taskbar> Toolbars> check Desktop.
Now the desktop icons will be available 'behind' the Notification Area, should you need them.
Not sure that speeds up Windows starting
Actually probably does!
What most Techs do, is create a new folder called "Old Desktop Items"
And drag all Desktop items to it ( Except My Docs; Bin and IE ofcourse)
You can then open the New folder and arrange by type, and usually start deleting or moving all these files to a better location. I've seen gigs of data on user Desktops!