Up to the wire. With a late night push in the Western Hemisphere, we saw some real come from behind action, pumping up our overall vote total by nearly double. Gosh, our servers got hit so hard, we needed to have our team of highly trained technicians burn the midnight oil and get more servers online. There were even suspicions of fraudulent COOKIE voting, as Ben got attacked by the Riverboat Veterans for Peace. Our martial arts undercover special forces investigators are still at work on those horrible allegations.
Even as we are hung over from too many holiday parties last night and overconsumed with reading comments, the final decision is:
1. ROSS & AMANDA - at 373 votes
2. BEN - at 276 votes
3. VICTORIA - at 35 votes
Congratulations to Ross & Amanda! Three cheers for Ben for playing the Rogue, AND three cheers for Victoria for not splitting the vote!
While Ross & Amanda WIN our free closet makeover, Ben and Victoria will recieve prizes for 2nd and 3rd place (a gift certificate for Goodwill? a pitchfork?).
And a special prize will go to Noa, Melissa and Erica for entering the most disfunctional closet which requires not a closet professional, but a contractor and apartment renovation (a gift certificate to the lumber yard? a bag of jelly bellies?)
and get your digital cameras ready for our next contest in February:
"THE SMALLEST, COOLEST APARTMENT"
Here were very few of the highlights:
Ben 200 votes in 2hours. cheater
Wow- Victoria. Now that is a closet that would create really good TV.
Man, I feel sorry for Victoria. Where was she in all of this? What happened? She never got out of the blocks! Her horse collapsed and she got trampled by the carriages.
Do you people really think that "weirdass" is spelled "wierdass?"
We like Hello Kitty! and we like this "Ben," he look cute in pink backpack, just like Powerpuff Girl!
If I understand one of the above posts correctly, Ben or one of his friends just requested that he be awarded a "Hello Kitty microwave" as runner-up. That's one of the saddest things I've ever heard.
What is this, the Ohio version of American Idol? Ben is one person, Amanda and Ross are two people (presumably) with TWICE as many friends and two families. As Ben's cat's friends and family cannot vote, this contest seems unfairly tilted.
All I am saying, Is give Ben a chance....
ben's closet is the messiest closet and as a new voter, I just want to say I see more hate mail rather than "messy votes".
Hey Monroe, are you retarded?????
Speaking of silly, this entire website just got taken over by craiglist junkies, ex-BBS'ers, and people who don't want to be productive at work today.
Ben's closet is not his problem. His stuff is. His closet is a plain rectangle - not a design challenge in any sense. Ross and Amanda, however, have an impossibly shaped closet. They can only use about 33% of it.
The WINNER here is Ben. His closet is the result of a hardworking person who obviously has no time left for organizing a closet.
no se si esta energia negativa es el producto de los esfuerzos de Amanda y Ross, pero espero que ellos no esten haciendo nada hacia ese fin porque tanta karma volvera. suerte, amigos...suerte.
you fat americans. arguing over a free closet shelf is simply bizarre.
i think ben is the funniest. i vote for him for that reason.
I think Ben's finally getting mad and posting fake comments.
In all fairness to Ben, if we get pee sample from him, we should get pee samples from all the contestants....
Veronica & Keith's Handmade Chic 
Before & After: A Bathroom Goes From Pinky Peach to Sleek and Chic
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Hunslet Dinner Plate
A Beginner's Guide to Superb Stir-Fry: Quick, Healthy Meals from a Wok
Easy Pitcher Cocktail Recipe: Strawberry Basil Margaritas
Comments (3)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2004
9.30 a.m.
CAMPAIGN TO GET BEN A NEW CLOSET
Upper West Side
New York City
To all clutter and design-concerned ApartmentTherapy.com habitués,
my supporters and all voters in the Messiest Closet Competition,
Regretfully, I tender this concession to my opponents, Amanda and Ross. You guys do have a really messed up closet. My best wishes for your future organizational and aesthetic domestic lives.
It has been a spirited and bruising campaign, physically and emotionally, and I regret nothing, except that I will not have the opportunity to have my closet professionally reappointed and reconfigured by Astech Closets, with Special Design & Clutter Consulting by Apartment Therapy. I thank the wonderful staff at Apartmenttherapy.com for their sponsorship of this event, and thank all of my supporters, my campaign staff and my Campaign Director, Heywood Ubuzzoff (on leave from NPR’s Car Talk).
Even though I and my staff have, almost from the beginning of this campaign, been accused of spamming, exaggeration, misrepresentation of fact, doping, cat-endangerment, vote-rigging, having links to organized terrorism, poor housekeeping skills, bad wardrobe editing instincts and of being whiny - say, all of these accusations and comments are not hurtful to me. Some comments were kindly and helpful (really!), some were baseless and mean-spirited (“Ben is a pig”). They are all part of the game of advancing and encouraging closet reorganization products and services. I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in this great democratic contest and ask that we all move forward to a better-organized time in our nation.
Thank you.
Ben
Of 106th Street
Upper West Side
New York, NY
Ben, you are still a pig.
But that was really funny.
When you recover from getting run-over by the Amanda Train, I think the winners should buy you a beer.
and the empty beer can he will undoubtedly throw into his closet.