This week, I’m on Prince Edward Island—home to my daughter Colleen and to everyone’s favourite redhead, Anne of Green Gables. Today’s Clutter Tale focuses on memories sparked by some “Anne” memorabilia we found when cleaning out Laura’s room over the summer.

About Clutter Tales

Clutter Tales is a series where we tell the stories of our lives through our clutter. During my decluttering journey, I found a lot of things that took me back to a different place and time. Instead of casually discarding them, I decided to honour them by telling their story. I’ve written Clutter Tales about a high school shorthand textbook, an old airline ticket, a travel diary from my trip to France at age 18, notes from a visit to a fortune teller, and more!

Along with my own reflections, this series has featured posts by some of my favourite bloggers. If you’d like to write a guest post for Clutter Tales, please get in touch. I’d love to give you the opportunity to properly thank your clutter by sharing its story too!

Now, on to today’s Clutter Tale…

Anne of Green Gables memories

What is it about a redheaded orphan from PEI that has made L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables a timeless classic celebrated around the world? When you visit PEI, you can’t avoid Anne. Her name and image are everywhere all around the island.

This has been the “Summer of Anne” for me. When we visited Colleen in May, I read her copy of Anne of Green Gables and loved it. It truly is a story that transcends ages, generations, and cultures. Many of the themes in the books resonate today—over a hundred years after L.M. Montgomery wrote the classic stories.

Over the summer, I listened to the audiobooks of the next six books in the series on my morning walks. Then I bought a physical copy of the final book Rilla of Ingleside to finish up the series as summer ended. As a lover of historical fiction, this final book was my second favourite after the original. The final book in the series packs an emotional punch as it tells the story of Anne’s youngest daughter Rilla and life during World War I for those left behind at home when the young men went off to war.

But I digress. Back to the Clutter Tale.

Visiting Anne’s island

As we cleared out Laura’s room earlier this summer, we found some souvenirs from our visit to Prince Edward Island in 2009.

When you visit Walt Disney World, you buy Mickey Mouse ears. For young girls visiting PEI, it’s hard to resist buying Anne souvenirs, especially those straw hats with the famous red braids.

Nine-year-old Laura just had to have one of those hats. She wore it everywhere during our vacation. Interestingly Colleen, who was six at the time, was not interested in the Anne hats. When I think back to that trip, I would never have predicted that Colleen would live on PEI one day.

Memories of Avonlea

Of course, we had to visit Green Gables during our visit. Along with seeing the house, we went for a walk on Lovers Lane where Laura famously slipped and fell in the red mud. I never did get those red stains out of her pants.

While in Cavendish we also went to Avonlea Village, a replica of the village from the books. During our visit to Avonlea, the girls attended classes in the schoolhouse with Miss Stacy and visited the general store and the church. We also had fun with egg and spoon races, pony rides, and a barn dance that had us singing “Lester the Lobster from PEI” all day long.

Sadly, things have moved on and Avonlea Village is not what it used to be. When we visited last year, the historic village buildings now just house a collection of stores and restaurants. We did have a nice lunch at the Turkey Tavern on the site of the barn dance, but it’s a shame that visitors can’t enjoy the same fun and family-friendly experiences we did.

Making new Anne memories in 2026

I’ve seen the musical Anne of Green Gables several times. To fittingly wrap up my Summer of Anne, Colleen and I are going to see Anne & Gilbert, The Musical tomorrow night. This sequel follows Anne and Gilbert’s story through the second and third books in the series, Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island. I’ll be sure to let you know what I think.  

I have now said goodbye to the Anne of Green Gables souvenirs, but the memories will last a lifetime…and they’re well documented in our scrapbooks.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of Clutter Tales. If you’d like to write a guest post for Clutter Tales, please get in touch. I’d love to give you the opportunity to properly thank your clutter by sharing its story too!

How do you capture vacation memories without filling your home with souvenirs? Drop me a comment below and tell me your stories.