Chelsea Barker has had a messy room for as long as she can remember. But she never thought her untidy lifestyle could win her prizes. That’s why she got excited when she saw the sign for the Rylaxing Messiest Bedroom Photo Contest. 

‘My room is almost like a dump, but in the best way possible,’ said Barker, a freshman photojournalism major. ‘My roommate always makes fun of me for being messy, and I’ve always been scolded for it, but now I was like, ‘Hey, this could pay off.” 

To participate in the contest, students must submit a photo of their messy rooms to rylaxing@gmail.com. Submissions were accepted beginning Nov. 11 and will continue to be accepted until 6 p.m. on Dec. 9. 

Rylaxing LLC, a company started by Ryan Dickerson, a senior economics major, is sponsoring the contest. Dickerson designed the Rylaxer, an ergonomic bolster designed to turn a flat surface, such as a bed in a dorm room, into a more comfortable place to sit. 

‘I designed the Rylaxer originally to make my room more comfortable,’ Dickerson said. ‘I wasn’t planning on starting a company based on the thing I’d made. I just wanted to make my bed into a couch.’ 

But after taking EEE 370: ‘Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises,’ he saw an opportunity to take his idea to the next level, he said. Dropping down to part-time student status his junior and senior years allowed him to take his extra time and the difference in tuition money to start Rylaxing LLC.  

Currently, the company is developing new products and looking to get some of its products into retail stores.

‘We’re expanding and spreading and kind of going everywhere,’ Dickerson said. ‘We’ve got newer, more interesting things that are going to be more functional and cheaper. From there, we’re going to eventually expand our inventory to other kinds of ways to sit.’ 

Dickerson said he has found that his products work as pregnancy pillows, have physical therapy uses and are also potentially desirable among geriatric consumers.

Clair Bergam, director of advertising for Rylaxing and a senior advertising major, said the primary focus will remain on college students, but products will hopefully find success in other markets.

‘I never thought of all the different physical therapy uses it could have or helping the elderly in hospital beds. I never imagined any of that. But we always had big hopes for it,’ Bergam said. 

A restricted budget forced Bergam to get creative when it came to advertising the product. Over the summer, she thought of several inexpensive ways of promoting the product, including the messy room contest.

Stephen Fox, director of public relations for Rylaxing, said the idea for the contest stemmed from the Rylaxer’s ability to make a room more functional.

‘The idea behind the Rylaxer is to make your room more comfortable and easier for you to have friends over to just chill out,’ said Fox, a senior public relations major. ‘We figured that the people who need that most are the people with the messy rooms, so we decided to reward the person with the messiest room.’ 

The winner will be announced Dec. 9 via Twitter, Facebook and e-mail. The occupant of the messiest room wins a Half Back Rylaxer and a complementary room cleaning. 

‘If my room’s clean, then people can actually come and hang out, and if I have the Rylaxer, it will be even more reason for people to come hang out,’ said Barker, the freshman photojournalism major.  

For the rest of the week, Barker will be waiting along with the other contestants to find out if her room was messy enough to capture the title of messiest room on campus.  

‘If my room’s the messiest and I win something, well, they can still make fun of me, but something would pay off from it,’ she said. ‘Kind of redemption in a way.’ 

mjfahner@syr.edu

 

Published on November 30, 2010 at 12:00 pm