Site offers big dough for messiest quarters
by Chris Taylor, editor in chief

    Have you ever had a birthday party for a two-year-old carton of milk?

    If you have, then you might be able to change your filth into a fortune.

    A national online apartment guide is offering $10,000 to the scummiest, nastiest, dirtiest college apartment.

    Apartments.com, an online apartment search website, is holding its second annual messiest college apartment contest.

    College students can enter online at http://www.apartments.com/messy/contest.htm or print out a mail-in entry from that site.

    Rules and guidelines are also available at the same site.

    Those who think their apartment is reminiscent of Chernobyl can enter the contest between now and March 9.

    To enter, contestants must submit up to four color photos of the apartment as well as a 250-word description of why their apartment is the messiest college apartment in the United States.

    Visitors to the site can view the contestants’ photos, read the descriptions and then cast their votes for the messiest apartment.

    “Seeing the footage and pictures from last year’s winning apartment, this is one time Apartments.com almost regrets the fact that we offer the most visual and interactive apartment tours on the web,” Karrie Gothschild, director of apartments.com’s messiest college apartment contest, said.

    The winner of the contest will be announced on or about April 9.

    One of last year’s entrants wrote, “Coated in a mysterious crust, the kitchen emanates an odor that will help even the hungriest of people stick to their diets. The main source of this stench is the two-year-old milk, which I recently had a birthday party for.”

    In addition to currently representing more than 2.5 million apartments in all 50 states, Apartments.com offers users the ability to post their own apartments for rent or sublet across the entire network of affiliated sites.