Blog - Alison's Notebook

A grandfather and young grandchild asleep together on a living room couch, with a cluttered end table beside them

Why We Stop Seeing the Clutter in a House We’ve Lived In for Years

A few weeks ago, my husband was asleep in his spot on the couch. One of our grandkids had curled up right next to him, and they were both snoring …

Baby shoes, old report cards, a crayon drawing and a macaroni card spread across a kitchen table beside a plastic keepsake bin

Baby Shoes, Report Cards and Macaroni Art: How I Sorted My Children’s Childhood Keepsakes

A woman told me something not long ago that I haven’t stopped thinking about. Her children are in their forties now, and she still has every school paper they ever …

A large plastic bag stuffed full of grocery bags, bulging out of an open cabinet under a kitchen sink

The Bag of Bags Under My Sink: How Many Plastic Grocery Bags I Kept (and Where the Rest Went)

“Grandma, why do you save bags inside a bag?” One of my grandkids asked me that last month. We were putting groceries away together, and I was folding the new …

An open kitchen drawer overflowing with mismatched plastic food containers, with loose lids spilled onto the floor below

Margarine Tubs, Cool Whip Bowls and the Lid Drawer: How I Decluttered My Food Storage Containers

Do you have a drawer in your kitchen that you open very slowly, because you know what will happen? I do. Or I did, until a few weeks ago. It’s …

Woman around eighty with short curly silver hair wearing a cream sweater, an open camel coat, and a red scarf outside a stone church in winter.

9 Winter Church Outfits For Women Over 80 (Warm And Lovely)

Nine winter church outfits for women over 80, each for a real church day. Warm, easy to put on, and mostly built from clothes you already own.

Three women of different ages sharing coffee and conversation around a small kitchen table.

Decluttering Tips From Women Over 70 Who’ve Actually Done It

Have you ever noticed that the best advice usually comes from someone a few steps ahead of you? Not from a book. Not from an expert on TV. From a …

Two women in their 60s sharing coffee at a kitchen table, with a china cabinet of pretty dishes behind them.

Decluttering When There Are No Children to Leave Things To

After church last spring, a friend and I sat in the fellowship hall with our coffee. We were talking about my blog, and about the posts I write on decluttering. …

A slightly crooked Christmas tree hung with old glass ornaments, red bells, a felt Santa, and children's handmade ornaments, with an open box of white tissue on the rug.

Three Generations of Ornaments on One Tree: How I Keep Them Safe and Keep Using Them

Does your family have a box of Christmas ornaments that has been around longer than you have? Maybe it was your grandmother’s, then your mother’s, and now it sits on …

Old wooden jewelry box open on a kitchen table with tangled necklaces, clip-on earrings, a gold brooch, and reading glasses on a towel.

My Mother’s Costume Jewelry: What I Wear, What I Gave Away, and What Went to a New Home

My mother’s jewelry box sat on the top shelf of my closet for almost three years (longer than I’d like to admit). I brought it home the month we emptied …

A woman in her 60s smiling softly at an overstuffed hall closet, holding an old lamp from her first apartment

How to Declutter a House You’ve Lived in for 40 Years (When You’re Not Moving Anywhere)

A few weeks ago, I opened our hall closet to find an umbrella. I didn’t find the umbrella. But I found just about everything else. There were the kids’ old …