I vote for Holly in Yorkville. How was this decided?

It was done by reader vote. Take a look at the scores on each entry.

Both of these closets are disgusting. It makes you wonder about people, really it does.

How come we can't vote anymore?

Okay, so the real question is, if their closets are this bad (spilling out into the room) what does the REST of the home look like? Does the kitchen spill out into the dining room? Does the apartment spill out into the hallway? Did I spy a dead pet in the back corner of one of those pictures? Oh the humanity!

I figure if you can't get all the stuff in the closet with a shoe horn, it won't benefit with having the closet rebuilt. Ya just can't get 24 cubic feet of stuff in a 12 cubic foot space. I know, I've tried.

Therefore, I voted Garrido. That's one closet area that could totally benefit from a makeover. Not that all the others wouldn't be helped, but all the others were too much like my own. There's just too much stuff.

It's like cars. If you're trying to cram in one extra person into a four-seater, yeah, it matters whether the back seat is a nice flat bench or is really intended for two people and someone sits on the hump. That would benefit from a new back seat.

Trying to cram an extra five people into the back seat just isn't going to work. No matter what the back seat configuration is. You can't seat seven when it's really meant for two.

The Garrido family can get all the stuff in the closet. And there's lots of open space left over. It's just not able to be used because of the way the closet was designed.

Looking at the entry picture for Astech, Riian's already has the benefit of drawers and shelves, and it's just not working. There's too much stuff.

Via shelves and cubbies and drawers, that closet of the Garrido's could become a gorgeous space with plenty of storage for all their goodies.

I don't know how much Astech does or can do, but there was that space above that a lot of people have, that isn't accessible. I wonder if Astech can do something with that too. Like make it into a high cabinet, even if the studs had to remain, there would still be some great shelving for infrequently used items.

I watched way too many episodes of Home Improvement Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) more power (grunt grunt) and have wild fantasies about that mechanized shoe procession closet addition, with music, anyone remember that?

I wonder if they could do that to a pantry with canned goods? Press a button, doors slide open, and the soups and veggies and fruits in cans start rotating, with a spotlight and music.

Agreed about there being a problem with having too much stuff to fit...but...look at what is in the other closet...how is a new set of shelves going to be utilized to it's fullest when most of their space is being hogged by a wheelie cart! Seems to me that Riian's closet would benefit more from the organization.

I vote for Riian!

Both of these closets are very bad. I feel sorry for the type of person who could live like this. The stench much be overwhelming.

Riian obvisouly needs some Apartment Therapy!

errrr obviously

Thanks, Fiona! I guess I am on my own in my Closet Purge Project of 2006.

I am hard at work trying to shed stuff accumulated in the THIRTY YEARS I've been in this flat.

Today was most productive. I vastly improved the wall unit that houses tv, dvr, vcr and dvd. I moved some of the errant wires behind this behemoth, a sweaty job. I used the "cable zipper" I bought at Bed Bath & Beyond to contain the many wires and make them more orderly.

AND--- I printed LABELS for the plugs!! Now there will be no guesswork when I need to unplug something.

Oh, man! I still have so much to do!!

Ya gotta be kidding. Neither of these closets is really a mess by the standards of MY closets. I guess I should have entered the contest myself!

I'm with Silly Me. Garrido's looks like more of a mess, but I'd win hands-down with my real-life Foghorn Leghorn Avalanche-When-You-Open-The-Door closet. My messy closet can beat up your messy closet with its moldy beer bottles with dead mice in them tied behind its back.

I'm sure lots of people noticed that the lead story on the front page of the House & Home section of today's NYTimes was about "compulsive" closet organization and the people who hire other people to fix their closets. Tragically, no mention of MGR or the Book. But it did reference a CA Closets VP by the name of Ginny Snook Scott. How many times a day do you think that poor woman is called Ginny Cooks Snot? Yikes.

I dont know whether to think you guys are being naive or that I know some seriously messy people. Ive known friends who's closets are a repository for everything from dirty laundry to discarded pizza boxes. The fact that Riian's clothes are on hangars should disqualify her. Where are the three dozen pairs of shoes? Where's the litter box that hasnt been emptied in two months? C'mon people, lets see some REAL filth

You guys are cracking me up! I had the most bizarre dream, with all sorts of things from AT coming up. At one point I was supposed to meet someone at a bar at breakfast time. But since I'd just seen her replastering the toilet paper holder in my mother's bathroom, I realized I didn't have to stop at the bar in my 18 wheeler afterall. I was upset at my mother, as she was going nuts, had just adopted 4 teenagers and was blasting bird calls she read off a sheet of paper (which sounded nothing like bird calls) at 3 AM over a loud speaker system into the backyard. And I had a gerbil in my old bedroom, that was vicious, because I forgot to feed it, so it tried to attack me and escaped into a frightening closet space full of piles of clothing and equipment and shoe boxes and other weird stuff. And it was hard to try to get it out of there without stuff falling on me or being bitten.

I owe it all to AT, this closet contest, the FSBO thread, and a few other threads.

Oh, the wheeled cart could be hung, on the inside of the door, or even on the outside, once the rest of the contents were organized (preferably with the nifty pull-out shelves, like in Lucy's Love Shack). Those carts do take up space, but they are incredibly useful.

Here's my issue with these closets: neither is really attempting to fit stuff in their closets. I mean, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that they both have way too much stuff, and they need to bite the bullet and get rid of some of it.

I would rather that the winner have made an honest attempt to organize, but be limited by the actual space. I don't see that here. I mean, stuff piled on the floor? Stuff piled willy-nilly on shelves, I could at least see as an attempt to help themselves.

It's like the contest rewards slovenliness rather than disorganization (and the two *are* different)

Well, the contest is called the Messiest Closet, not the Most Disorganized Closet. It seems like the terms of the contest have been clear from the beginning, but you just don't like them. Stop trying to turn the contest into what you feel it should be, and just let it be what it has been from the beginning.

Okey-dokey, Clutterfreemiss. I was not aware that stating my views about the contest would be such a flashpoint! I obviously cannot change the rules or the contest.

*backs away from the thread slowly*

oh no...that's bad. They need a personal organizer too!!

I can really relate to this one. You need professional help. Hard to know where to begin when you're on your own. Take it from me.

dizzy's comments have given me my laugh for the day! I didn't vote because these closets just weren't bad enough and I was waiting for the real disaster! (maybe there was too much shame in sharing)

I help vote for francis friend! She needs it!

I vote for Riaan