It’s probably hard to tell what the photo shown below is supposed to be. Back in 1980 or thereabouts, it was a music box with a dancing bird in a cage. A friend gave it to me, and I kept it all these years just because it was a nice cheerful gift. When I moved to my current home, I put the music box on a shelf and forgot all about it until I tidied the shelf this week. The plastic cage fell apart as soon as I picked it up.
 

Just out of curiosity, I tried winding it to see if it would still play the music, but nothing. I’m sure the workings got so clogged with dust that there was no way anything could move. Maybe it could have been fixed, but there didn’t seem to be much reason to try, so I pitched it.  Some old gifts might be worth keeping; but when something gets totally forgotten about and falls apart on a shelf, I’d say it has reached its sentimental-value expiration date.

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!