Emmett sat on the couch, staring at the blank TV screen.
It was a gloomy Friday morning.
The sky was a solid gray, and the rain was falling steadily.
Mom walked into the room with her arms full of laundry for the washer. “Hey, Em,” she said. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing,” replied Emmett. “There’s nothing to do, and I’m bored. I wish I could watch my favorite cartoons.”
“Well,” said Mom, “the repairman said the part we need for the TV will be here in a few days. He can’t make the repairs until then. You’ll just have to live without TV for a while.”
“But it’s raining outside, and there’s nothing to do,” complained Emmett.
“Well, why don’t you call Teddy and ask him to come over and play with you here?” said Mom.
“Teddy went to visit his grandma for the week,” replied Emmett. “He won’t be back until Monday.”
“Oh, I see,” said Mom. “Well, you’ve got lots of toys in your room to play with, and you could always color, draw, or build something with your blocks.”
“I don’t really feel like doing any of that,” said Emmett. “It’s boring.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure out something to do,” said Mom, and she continued on her way to load the washing machine.
Emmett just continued sitting on the couch, staring at the blank TV screen and listening to the rain falling outside. He heard Mom close the lid on the washing machine and heard a gurgling noise as the tub started to fill with water.
Suddenly, Mom called out, “Em! Can you come and help me for a second, please?”
Emmett hopped down off the couch and went to the laundry room to see what his mom needed help with.
“Can you take these empty boxes out to the garage for me, please?” she asked. “Sure, Mom,” he replied.
Mom handed Emmett three cardboard boxes. Shoe boxes, to be more precise. They were all about the same size, but they were different colors.
“Where did these come from?” asked Emmett.
“Your dad reorganized his closet last week and doesn’t need these boxes any longer. Just set them by the big trashcan in the garage, and we’ll put them out by the curb for the garbage truck to collect on Monday,” said Mom.
“Can I have them?” asked Emmett. “It seems like a waste to just throw them away!”
“Be my guest,” said Mom. “Just make sure you put them away when you’ve finished with them.”
“OK! Thanks, Mom!” said Emmett.
Emmett carried the boxes up to his room. He had no idea what he was going to do with them, but they were just too cool to throw in the trash.
Well, maybe he would just put them in the closet for now and figure out what to do with them later.
Emmett opened his closet door and looked for a place to put the shoe boxes. The closet shelf was already full, and it was too high for him to reach anyway.
The floor was covered with shoes and stuffed animals and a big tub filled with his collection of model cars and trucks. There was no room for the boxes.
Then an idea came to him.
What if he moved the cars and trucks from the big tub to the shoe boxes?
Then he could put the stuffed animals in the empty tub.
That would make things a lot more organized, and he’d have more room in his closet!
Emmett dragged the tub of toy cars out into the middle of his room and dumped them all out.
There were a LOT of them!
“Now, which cars should go in which box?” he wondered.
That would make things a lot more organized, and he’d have more room in his closet!
He started by separating his collection into three piles, since he had three boxes. In the first pile, he gathered all of his cars and trucks that he saw every day on the street.
He decided that he would call this pile his “Street Cars” collection. The second pile was made up of his “Supercars”—Lamborghinis, Ferraris, etc. And the third pile was just for his favorite Monster Trucks.
It took a while, but Emmett finally got all the cars and trucks into the correct piles.
Then he thought, “How will I know which box holds which cars once I put the lids on the boxes? Labels!”
Emmett went to his desk and got three clean sheets of paper.
On the first piece of paper, he carefully printed Street Cars five times.
He found his scissors and cut the paper into five strips.
Now he had five labels.
He took the labels and his tape back to the center of the room and taped one label to the lid and one label to all four sides of the first box.
It looked pretty good!
Now, no matter which way he turned the box—except upside down, of course—he would know which car collection was in that box.
Emmett put all the street cars in the Street Cars Box, put on the lid, and set it aside.
He was just about to start on the next set of labels when Mom called him to come for lunch.
“You’ve been awfully quiet,” said Mom. “What have you been up to?”
“I’m organizing my car collection,” said Emmett.
“That sounds like a great idea!” said Mom. “You have a LOT of cars!”
After lunch, Emmett went back to work making the labels for the other boxes. First, he labeled the Super Cars box and then the Monster Truck box.
He finished putting all the cars in the proper boxes, put on the lids, and stacked them on top of each other.
Wow! This was cool!
He went to his closet and picked up all the stuffed animals on his closet floor and put them in the tub that used to hold his cars.
This made a lot more room on his closet floor. Even after putting his car collection next to the tub, he still had room, so he was able to put his shoes away neatly as well.
Just then Mom came into his room and peeked into his closet.
“My goodness!” she exclaimed. “You’ve been busy! This looks great, Em!”
“Now when I want to go play Monster Trucks with Teddy, I won’t have to spend time searching for them in the big tub.
I’ll just grab the Monster Trucks box and go!” said Emmett.
“Good job!” said Mom. “Maybe you can help your dad organize the garage some weekend!”
“Hmmm…” thought Emmett. “When I have more boxes, maybe I can organize my LEGO collection too!”
Emmett forgot all about being bored and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the cars and trucks from his collection.
Some of the cars he hadn’t seen in so long that it was like getting a new toy.
Before he knew it, he heard a car in the driveway and knew his dad had arrived home from work.
Emmett ran to the front door to greet his dad and then took him to his room to show him what he’d accomplished.
“Wow!” said Dad. “That’s a big improvement, son. Way to go!”
“You know, it’s been rainy and gloomy all day,” said Dad. “But the weather forecast for tomorrow calls for a hot and sunny day. Maybe we should go to the beach?”
“That would be great!” said Emmett. “And I know exactly which box from my car collection I’m going to take!”
“Let me guess,” said Dad. “Would that be your Monster Truck collection?”
“Yep!” replied Emmett. “Lamborghinis don’t do so well in the sand.”
The next day was sunny and warm.
As promised, Emmett’s dad took the family to the beach for the day and Emmett had a great time playing with his monster trucks in the sand.
He knew that Teddy would return home from his grandmother’s on Monday and they would both have stories to share about their weekends.
Emmett smiled.
Yesterday had started as a boring rainy day, but by the end of it he had organized his closet, rediscovered some of his favorite toys, and had a lot of fun along the way.
Another day, another adventure!
The End