how do I move things from my laptop to iCloud to free up space on my laptop

To view the space of Macintosh HD , click on finder take cursor on top menu bar > Go > Computer > Macintosh HD use get info is used ( right click on Macintosh HD ) , again in the next upcoming column you can see applications folder .

If massive third party applications , softwares are installed in Mac they will be viewed in applications , these third apps occupy Macintosh HD space , so that has to be deleted .

Open finder > under favourites > applications > right click on the third party apps and move to bin , restart the Mac and empty the trash , the storage of hard drive will be reduced see this article also Install and uninstall apps from the internet or a disc on Mac - Apple Support

Another folder is Users > your user name > downloads > massive .dmg files if found in it also occupy space , that has to be emptied .

Note : always set up iCloud drive in Mac , and turn on inbuilt application boxes for inbuilt applications like photos , mails , notes ... so that their data sync with iCloud see the articles Set up iCloud features on Mac - Apple Support

Set up iCloud Drive - Apple Support

You can select , copy from Macintosh hard drive and paste files into documents in iCloud Drive .

If you are trying to free up space on your MacBook the best way is to move data to an external HD. iCloud is great but it's more of a mirror image, what you do on your device happens in iCloud. So if you delete something, it also deletes in iCloud.

Don't get me wrong iCloud does help a little. It helps with iCloud Drive and photos... but only iCloud Drive saves a lot of space on your device. When you click on a document it downloads it and opens it. With photos, it still takes up some space on the device... but it's lowered to some degree if you don't choose the option "download originals"...

Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support