Prunella the Packrat

Summary
Can Arthur help Prunella break her packrat habits in time to put together the display for the school's Earth Day fair?

Plot
Arthur is busy cleaning up his room and asks the viewers if they've ever given thought to how many items they have. He then goes over a history of peoples possessions before reverting to current time and asks the viewers what will happen to their stuff 2,000 years from now?

Prunella the Packrat

In Mr. Ratburn's class, Muffy is going over her decoration plans for the upcoming Earth Day celebration. However, he tells Muffy that the students selected for the objective will be selected randomly and he reveals that Prunella will represent the fourth grade, while Arthur will represent the third grade.

Meeting up at Prunella's house, they are spooked by Rubella and Arthur stares in shock upon finding how crowded Prunella's closet is! She goes over pencils, broken shoe-laces, ticket stubs, and so fourth until Arthur waits outside of her closet for her to find what they need for the upcoming events. After an hour or so suddenly Arthur hears a crash. He asks Prunella if she is okay, but she insists its a frequent thing. Arthur then tells her he has to leave for dinner while Prunella lays in the mass of objects.

Arthur later goes to Buster and discusses how much of a pack rat Prunella is. Buster didn't think it was a big deal since he is a pack rat when it comes to saving food, but Arthur explain it not just one thing Prunella saves, she saves everything single thing she gets. Buster suggest she read a book call "Neatnik Ned Guide to Clearing Clutters" that his mom had got for him. But mentions he only read a single chapter of it...but it was still life changing and thinks that it can help Prunella.

The following day, Prunella is having trouble being convinced to read the new book. She also tries to keep both Arthur and Rubella out of her closet but this proves to be futile. So Arthur suggest they make a pile for keep items, a pile for get rid of items, and finally a pile for the fair items. After some time the three manage to make a good pile of objects to get rid of and she tells Arthur and Rubella that they have done enough so she will put the remaining items into the wagon and take it to the recycle center herself.

Upon arrival, the manager tells her that the items are free so that she can take whatever she wants. She overlooks the items and manages to find many of them she would like to the point of coming home with triple the amount of items she was going to dispose of. She heads to Busters and mentions how she found a big heart shaped beet and asks if he wants it. He agrees, but she then asks him to do a favor for her and asks him to keep all of the items she got from the recycle center for a few days.

At the Sugar Bowl, Arthur goes over the map he planned out for the fair. He then asks if he could come over to pick up the book he lent her, wanting to read it also. Prunella makes Arthur stay in the hallway until he hears a lot of noise and looks to see her overly crowded floor and closet. Hesitantly, Prunella admits that she kept getting more and more from the center.

Arthur then leaves after he comments she needs the book a lot more than her saying shes hope getting a bigger closet because he cant imagine what the closet going to like a year from now. This cause her to imagine her closet practically exploding! Which finally makes her realize she's wrong and she needs to organize her bedroom.

And so on the day of the fair, Buster is introducing Arthur to the "organic" foods he had made while Muffy tells him that she would have made a much better fair display when they hear the microphone nearby making a loud noise. They approach as she explains that every object she is putting up for display is free and makes a request that whoever takes it not hang on to it for so long and that they should all share the items. Upon being asked for her second request, she informs Mr. Ratburn that she plans on using it for her ideas.

Major

 * Prunella Deegan
 * Arthur Read
 * Rubella Deegan
 * Buster Baxter

Minor

 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * George Lundgren
 * Binky Barnes

Cameo

 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * The Brain
 * Maria Pappas
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Fern Walters
 * Alex
 * Francine Frensky
 * Brian
 * 3rd Grade Male Aardvark
 * Otis
 * Patrick
 * John
 * Steve

Episode connections

 * Apparently, Arthur still owns his Poogle from "Arthur Rides the Bandwagon", despite giving it away to the triplet babies.
 * Sue Ellen is running a "Save the Grebes" booth.
 * This is similar to what Prunella did in "Prunella Packs It In".
 * The Green-Tailed Grebe was revealed to be still alive in "For the Birds".
 * Sue Ellen gives Francine an anti-Chickin Lickin' button, referencing her protest in "Sue Ellen Chickens Out".
 * George is running a "Plant a Tree" booth, referencing his report in "The Cherry Tree".
 * Binky is running a "Bike Lanes" booth, referencing "Room to Ride". He is even wearing the same outfit.
 * Buster is running an "Organic Vegetables" booth. The Community Garden was first seen in "Buster's Green Thumb".
 * Prunella has a miniature version of the polar bear stuffed animal that Mrs. MacGrady received in "The Great MacGrady".
 * Prunella has the same Elvis bust that Grandma Thora threw out in "Bats in the Belfry".

Cultural references

 * is a central theme of this episode.
 * Buster's "Yamlet" is a reference to William Shakespeare's Hamlet, especially the line "Two beets, or not two beets", which references "To be, or not to be".

Errors

 * An uncolored cat picture is behind Buster when he shows Arthur the book. But when he suddenly shows it up close, the cat was suddenly colored.
 * The collar of Buster's sweater briefly takes on the style of Arthur's v-neck sweater with the correct pink and cyan coloring.
 * Binky changed from his biking clothes to his normal clothes between the time he was at his booth and when he tried to take the microphone from Prunella.

Production notes

 * This episode was originally going to be the second half, but the order was switched for some unknown reason.

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