How can I reduce space waste in Sharepoint 2010.

Here is my SharePoint page:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dcRT6xTvAFZxaFQCJZxiVTEhFm6K2M24UBhltAk2Bz4?feat=directlink

In the areas marked, you can see that that there is no useful information and that useful content only appears about one third of the way down the page. How can I reduce this?

Ideally, the 'Last Modified' info could go in the right column with the Page Rating. The black (1) and green (2) bands could be merged as they host very little and the third part doesnt' have a reason to be there at all.

Is it possible to make these improvements?