Joey goes to Clutterland

By Denise McCabe

Joey was a little boy who loved spending all day playing with his toys. When it came near to getting ready for bedtime, Mammy would start singing,

‘Clean up, don’t you run’

‘Cleaning up is so much fun’

Running away giggling Joey would say ‘Oh, I just have to go do something important’ or ‘Oh, Mammy, I’m too tired but I will do it in the morning.’

One morning Mammy got up from the couch and went to the shops.  When she got home, discovered she had five pieces of lego hanging from her hair.

Later that night, after Joey had gone to bed, Mammy was tidying and she fell and landed on her bottom.  She had slipped on one of Joeys toys.

‘Not again,’ she said. ‘If I keep doing this I will have no bottom left. I think it time to call the magic dust.’

A little voice was heard in the drawer. ‘Yippee let me out!’ It was the red jar of magic dust. ‘Hello Dusty,’ said Mammy. ‘You know what to do.’ Dusty the jar tipped itself all over the toys on the floor. Smiling to herself Mammy then made her way up to bed.

The next morning after breakfast, Joey went over to play with the favourite toys he had left all over the kitchen floor.  As soon as he touched his little red car, there was a great big flash of light and when he looked up he could see big trees and plants and stacks of toys everywhere.

Joey went over to play with the toys when suddenly a chimpanzee with long arms, big feet and a banana stuck to his head swung from a tree and knocked down a stack of toys.

‘Hello Joey, my name is Jumbles. I’m so glad you came to Clutterland. Please come meet my friends.’

Fluster the ostrich with the long neck and fluffy wings peeped over the stack of toys and said hello.  He tried to make his way over to Joey and but instead he slid into the toys and landed legs in air straight into a tree.

‘Ouch!’ someone shouted.  It was Gooey the frog with the red funny eyes. ‘Fluster, stop doing that,’ he shouted. ‘Your long legs are always getting in my way!’ With that, he lost his grip of the tree and slid into a box of toys underneath. ‘Now look what you’ve done to me again, Fluster,’ he said.

Jumbles stumbled over to him and said ‘Gooey, if you stop sticking to that tree all the time this wouldn’t happen as often.  Come on Joey, let’s play catch.’

Jumbles threw the ball up in the air.  Gooey and Fluster both went to catch it but Fluster slipped over a pile of toys. His feet stuck to Gooey.

‘Get off my feet, Gooey,’ he shouted and kicked his leg causing Gooey to go straight into a tree.  Gooey started to slide down the tree.  He didn’t notice box of toys underneath and slid straight into them.  ‘Uh-oh , not again,’ he groaned.

Joey went to go for the ball but instead he tripped and went flying in the air.

‘Hang on Joey, I’ll catch you,’ shouted Jumbles as he made his way over. ‘Oops,’ Joey said.   With a great thud he landed bottom first on the ground. He looked down and saw that he had slipped on a toy train.

‘Ah there’s my train, I knew Fluster hid that on me earlier’ said Jumbles.

Joey laughed and said ‘Hey everyone, let’s play tidy up so we have more room to play’

‘Oh, that sounds like fun,’ said Fluster ‘but its football night with Chaos Ants and Muddled Spiders. I might later?’ He then bent his head down into a hole in the ground full of ants and spiders.

‘I want to play that game,’ Jumbles said. He started to swing down from the tree but missed his grip and fell down.  ‘Ah, my feet are stuck together. Fluster; stop leaving your lollipops around. Now look what you’ve done!’

‘Not to worry, everyone, I’ll show you how to play,’ said Joey. He remembered how Mammy and Daddy cleaned and started to sing

‘Clean up, don’t you run’

‘Cleaning up is so much fun’

So off he went happily tidying away all the toys and clutter.  When he eventually finished he looked around and smiled. That was fun he thought. Now we have room to play. He wished his friends hadn’t been busy, as he was so tired from doing it all on his own.  Not to worry, I’ll just have a little nap before I call my friends over.

Next thing he heard ‘Joey, it’s time for breakfast’.  He jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs.

‘Mammy, Mammy, I have to tell you about Clutterland!’

Smiling Mammy sat and listened to the exciting adventure he had.

‘That sounds great Joey,’ she said.

‘Oh Mammy, it was the best, I can’t wait to go back to see did Gooey make it out of the toy box and Jumbles with lollipop feet and Fluster’s legs that get him into trouble’.

When he was finished he went over to his toys and began to tidy them up and sang

‘Clean up, don’t you run’

‘Cleaning up is so much fun’

- Total nr. of readings: 2,647 Copyright © The author [2020] All Rights Reserved. This story may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author except for personal use.