Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Stella. She lived with her mom and dad in a lovely apartment on the edge of town. But if we’re being honest, their apartment wasn’t really all that nice. You see, Stella had one bad habit. She never wanted to tidy up after herself. And even worse, she was super messy.
At first, it wasn’t so terrible. Sure, clearing her plate from the table or wiping up a spilled tablecloth wasn’t such a big problem. But it didn’t stop there. Mom had to pick up cookie wrappers from all over the floor every single day.
Daddy kept finding Stella’s dirty socks everywhere—she’d just take them off whenever she wanted and leave them wherever they landed. She did the same with papers, pencils, toys, clothes, and even leftover food.
Her parents were so tired of constantly cleaning up that they decided to keep Stella shut in her room, bringing her food and everything else, so she wouldn’t make a mess all over the apartment. They thought that when Stella no longer had anywhere left to stand in her room, she’d finally clean up. But that didn’t happen.
It was Mom who first realized that Stella’s messiness wasn’t normal. She was just bringing soup to Stella for lunch. She opened the door to Stella’s room, stepped over a mountain of stuffed animals, gracefully hopped over scattered LEGO, twirled between the dolls, but just as she was getting closer to the little table, she spotted a pile of crumpled papers. She couldn’t step anywhere else. The moment she stepped on a paper, her foot slipped. Underneath the papers, there were also toy cars scattered about. Mom fell, spilled the soup, and even got a bruise from a plastic dinosaur.
“This isn’t normal. Her room looks worse than a trash can,” Stella’s mom said as she was grabbing some clean clothes.
“You’re right, I should talk to her,” daddy agreed. How did you get that bruise?
A dinosaur bit me. And off you go, or I’m afraid we’ll have to call in a specialist.”
“I hope it’s not that bad,” daddy laughed, and headed off to see Stela.
When daddy walked into the room, he didn’t see Stela anywhere.
Stella? Are you here?
“Yeah, over here. I’m playing with Play-Doh,” called a little girl from somewhere underneath a pile of rubbish and toys.
“We need to clean up in here, young lady” said daddy.
“Alright,” said Stella.
Daddy was surprised at how well it was going. But it didn’t last long. Stella just pushed the mess from one corner to another, made a path from the door to the table and to the bed, so now it looked like little walkways between big snowdrifts. Only it wasn’t snow, but a pile of trash, food scraps, clothes, and toys.
So the parents decided to ask an expert for advice. General Proper had a great reputation in town. After the war, he spent some time selling cleaning products, and now he specialized in messy children, training them to be tidy.
He arrived early in the morning and headed straight for Stella’s room. The parents tried to hold him back, telling him that Stella was still asleep. But the general wouldn’t be held back—he kicked open the door and started yelling:
“Wake up! And start tidying! Trash in the bin, toys on the shelves, clothes in the closet! Let’s move, let’s move, let’s move!”
Stella was so surprised that she jumped out of bed without a word and started sorting out the mess.
“Teeth brushed, clothes on, hair combed!” shouted General Proper with more orders. “Grab the trash and take it out to the bin!”
Her parents watched with their mouths open as Stella cleaned up, ran out to throw away the trash, and even got herself dressed. Usually, she spent the whole day in her pajamas.
‘At ease!’ General Proper finally thundered that afternoon, and sent the girl off to her room.
The parents were full of thanks, because General Proper had done the impossible. He had taught their daughter how to clean. All of a sudden, her room looked as neat as a pin.
“Cleaning takes order and discipline,” he explained, left the parents a couple of free kitchen cleaners, and marched off to help another messy child.
But as soon as the door clicked shut behind the general, Stella tore off her clothes, tossed them all over the floor, angrily chucked her toys off the shelves, threw all her clothes out of the closet right after, gave them a good crumple, and finally dumped a pot of dirt right on top of everything. All messy, she crawled into bed and smeared the blankets.
All her parents could do was cry. Their Stella is incorrigible. And they had really thought that General Proper had cured her. Next year, Stella is supposed to start school. Can you let such a little troublemaker out among people?
One day, grandpa and grandma came to visit to wish Stella a happy birthday.
“Where’s my beloved granddaughter?” said grandma as she bustled into Stella’s room.
She had to try really hard just to be able to get into the room. The mess came up to her neck. While grandma swam through the mess, trying to find Stella in it, Grandpa decided to try a different approach.
“You know, I used to be a garbage man. I’ll call my work buddies and have them bring over a container so we can throw everything out. Otherwise, I don’t think we’ll ever find Stella.”
Pretty soon, there was a container in front of the house, and grandpa and grandma were shoveling heaps of mess into it with a snow shovel. Meanwhile, the parents came back from shopping. They explained to grandma and grandpa that all that effort was pointless, since Stella would make just as much of a mess in a single day. But grandma and grandpa didn’t let themselves be bothered.
By evening, Stella’s room was spotless again. But where was Stella? They cleaned the whole room and still couldn’t find her anywhere.
Nobody had the energy to worry about it anymore, because the whole day of cleaning had tired them out so much that they ate some cookies and went off to bed. Mom thinks Stella just mysteriously disappeared. Daddy believes Stella ran away during cleaning so she wouldn’t have to help tidy up. Grandma is convinced the mess swallowed Stella. And grandpa? He just chuckles and tells everyone stories from back when he was a garbage man.
Actually, Stella was accidentally taken out, wrapped up in the trash and tossed in the container. The garbage collectors took it to the dump, where Stella liked it so much, she didn’t want to go home and decided to stay there living among the rubbish. To this day, she helps the garbage collectors empty the bins, and she’s happy that she doesn’t have to clean anymore.