Andy: Don't Throw It Away!
The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney. It was originally broadcast on Feb. 25, 2007.
My life is cluttered with things I've saved. Most of them aren't worth saving but I can't bring myself to throw them away.
If I have an empty box, I fill it with stuff I decide to keep. One box is filled with note pads that I've never written a note on.
Right under my feet I have one of those metal file dividers. I bought this about eight years ago. I filled it with papers that I never look at. It just sits there, full.
I made one box to keep papers in and to separate oh, say legal matters from letters from old friends. It has seven places for different kinds of papers but I forget what the difference is.
I keep a couple of cardboard boxes right by my desk. Every once in a while, maybe twice a day, I come across something I want to keep and I put it in one of these boxes. When the box fills up, I start filling another box.
Floppy discs seemed like a great idea when they were invented. I like to be in on technological progress. So, I have hundreds of discs now filled with stuff I've written. I never look at any of them. They are here though. Ready when I am.
If I do have something special on paper that I want to keep, an appointment or something, Susie pins it up on the bulletin board and I never look at that either
There are the really important papers. Different categories of important. Personal, legal, family, business, ideas. I no longer know what these papers are. All I can tell you for sure is they're important.
I have some of my old calendars. One is from 1994, another from 2003. Apparently I went to Paris on Monday, June 2nd that year. I forget how long I stayed in Paris but it must have been a quick trip because I gave a speech in Buffalo on June 9th.
It's hard to know how much of your life you ought to try and save so you can enjoy remembering it. Sometimes all you can remember are the things you'd rather forget.
Written By Andy Rooney