It's Brooklyn vs. Manhattan.
We did it last year with Astech Closet Systems, and we're doing it again. While AT:Chicago is looking for the Hottest Closet in their area, we're looking for the Messiest Closet in Manhattan & Brooklyn. That's right, the worst closet in NYC (BTW pic at left is part of the winning closet - Ross & Amanda's Digs - from 2005).
We're looking for the hopeless bachelor closet, the frenzied woman full of shoes closet and the overwhelmed by tight space couple who can't figure out how to make it work.
As a reward for sending in your pics and showing us all how desperate it is, we will make a visit to the winner's home to present them with a personally signed copy of the Apartment Therapy Book and as many tips as we think you can digest. Then Astech Closet Systems will come in, redesign (with your input) and install a brand new shelving system to cure the space.
Sound like a plan? If you need to redo your closet, enter now by sending three GOOD pictures of the closet and environs by next Monday, May 22.
Who's Elligible:
The second annual Messiest Closet Competition is officially open to all reach-in residential closets in Manhattan & Brooklyn.
How to Enter:
Closets must be entered by their owner. Third parties are welcome to prod and encourage, but in the end the owner must step up. The goal here is to help the afflicted, not simply to embarrass them.
To nominate a closet, its owner should send an email to editor (at) apartmenttherapy (dot) com being sure to include the following:
1. In the subject line: "Messy Closet Competition"
2. In the body of the email: A brief description of the closet indicating its size, specific contents, and general state of disarray. Feel free to be as literary as necessary to evoke the extent of the problem, but all entries should be kept to within 250 words.
3. Attached: At least three good digital photos of your closet and environs. Try to capture different perspectives, and make sure you've got enough light on the subject.
4. Also: please include your name, neighborhood and contact info. We will not share your full name or address with anyone, but we may need it to contact you in the event that you are a finalist.
The Judging:
The ApartmentTherapy.com editors will screen the submissions and post those that are decent. The rest will be up to a vote by the readers. This is a full on reader voting contest.
The Awards:
Within one week of the posting of the finalists, the winner will be introduced to Bill Skinner, founder and President of Astech Closet who will schedule the closet makeover.
Mr. Skinner is an experienced local contractor and entrepreneur who appears on various HGTV programs. Astech Closet performs the same sort of work as California Closets but their prices are as much as 28% less. And the quality is high. Says Skinner: "I won't leave a job where a person is unhappy."
Astech Closet will be in and out of the winner's home in less than one day.
Astech Closets is great. I had Bill come and give me an estimate, but we decided that we were going to have to knock down an interior closet wall before we did anything. He was very pleasant and seemed really capable, so I recommended him to a friend, who did use him--and was very happy.
I actually don't have a closet in my apartment...can I take a picture of my wall of shame (rolling rack, bookshelves...doubling as a closet)?
Hey, does Astech closets help build a closet from scratch? I would like to get one built but right now I don't have the funds.
How much does it cost, ballpark, to take out a wall - in my case, the "frame" wall around the closet door?
Wait...no Brooklyn? Wha...? Really? Jeez, I haven't felt this ostracised since the 90's, before Brooklyn was the hippest borough around.
Pixie,
I haven't done it yet, but will get a price soon. That shouldn't be *that* expensive if it's not a supporting wall or something.
I have to admit that I'm starting to feel a Brooklyn backlash, especially since that fawning New York magazine article. My artist friend said that now she wants to move.
Our 450sf overstuffed Brooklyn Heights co-op studio's bursting at the seams closet was a shoe-in as a finalist until i read the part about needing to have been able to afford to buy in Manhattan 8 years ago instead of Brooklyn. Bummer.
Did we ever get to see Ben's "After" pictures after he won the contest?
No fair, I was just going to send in a pic of my overflowing brooklyn closet! It really needs help . . .
You're pretty much treating the symptoms and missing the underlying problem. No closet organizer can help an obsessive saver who has the need to keep multiple pairs of jeans from high school! I guarantee that whoever the winner is, his/her closet will be a mess again in a couple of months. Throw stuff away people!
V, I take it you didn't see any of these posts
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/book
Hey, what if you're a renter and you can't make any structural changes? Or if you just don't want to leave your crappy landlord with a kick-ass closet?
M, I have the same dilema. I have decided to renovate my closet anyways, solely because it would make my life easier in the meantime (same philosophy when it comes to other small renos/gardening). If in the event of a move, I will take it down, put the crappy pole back up, and hope that the good closet hardware will be re-usable in the new place.
Do we get "After" pictures of Ross & Amanda's? I am piqued...
I know this is a little cynical, but couldn't someone with an otherwise tidy closet that wanted to win the custom set-up just stage themselves a terrifically messy closet, photograph it well, and win themselves an organizer? My advice- gussy up that mess, the worse the better.
It looks like the Giarrado family have the messiest closet I have ever seen.
"AWFUL"
Arlene Papier