I’m only 37 but I know what it is because like Crotalus’s dad, my mother has always made the same remarks about disorganized things.
That’s pretty good, bud, but it ain’t the way I heared it . . .
I’m 57. My dad taught me about Fibber McGee’s closet in the 1960s, though from the 1980s I listened myself to “The Johnson Wax Program” on “Those Were The Days” (Chicago-area old-time radio anthology).
No idea, but then, I’m a foreigner.
Having read the responsed describing it, it sounds equivalent to the Spanish cajón de sastre. Literally “a tailor’s drawer” (full of odds, ends, bits, pieces, and you have to search it carefully because of the needles), but also a single space away from and pronounced exactly like cajón desastre, “the disastrous drawer”.
Yeah I know what it is, but from my mother. Fibber McGee and Molly, apparently Fibber had a closet that whenever you opened it, everything that was packed in it fell out on his head. Kind of like my closet. Or so my mom said.
My mom also used the catch phrase “T’ain’t funny, McGee!”
I’ve heard a few episodes – in recordings, not broadcast! – and so I knew immediately what was meant.
I’ve known about Fibber McGee and Molly, and I’ve known about their overstuffed closet, but I didn’t know “McGee’s closet” was a “thing”.
Never knew of Mcgee’s closet, but as far as old timey pop culture references go, I use “bag of tricks” rather frequently, which was popularized if not invented in the Felix the cat cartoons.
Never heard of it. The whole “locker-exploding-upon-opening” is probably a close descendant, though.
That was exactly my reaction. Without the “Fibber” it took me a bit to make the connection. I’m 47 but my father was born in 1927 and grew up in the Depression listening to radio shows. He would talk about the shows.
It was from a radio comedy in the days before television. The closet on the show was packed so tight that if you opened it the contents would crash down on your head. It was a running joke.
Wow! Fifty answers already!
I read Mad Scientists’ Club in 1966, and had to ask my mom what a “McGee’s closet” was, so that’s how I learned what it meant too.
The age spread here is interesting; I wasn’t sure someone born after 1955 would have any idea what I was talking about.
Sometimes I feel like just an old fart. Last evening, after one of the contestants on Jeopardy! mentioned the Bismarck, I started singing the hit song from 1960. My 19-year-old daughter stared at me and asked “Where do you get all this crap?”
Yes, from my parents talking, but only with Fibber attached.
Yup, I grew up with Mom & Grandma referencing “Fibber McGee’s closet.”
I have slight memories of radio shows from our sojourn in South Dakota, before emigrating to The Land of TV. Inner Sanctum began with a scary sound–I don’t remember any of the scary stories. When I saw The Lone Ranger I remember thinking he didn’t look as I’d envisioned him–South Dakota cowboys didn’t wear fancy off-white suits!
I do, but only because it was part of a plot point on an episode of NewsRadio (the TV show). If not for that, I wouldn’t have heard of it.
American, born mid-70s.
No idea.
I remember hearing the name “Fibber McGee” and the expression “t’ain’t funny, McGee” referenced by my grandparents, but I didn’t know what they were speaking about until years later when I read about it.
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Yeah, I got that feeling during a recent episode of Scorpion, when Cabe, the middle-aged government agent, made a comment about Peek Freans. The team didn’t know what he was talking about, so he asked “How old are you?” Toby responded, “How old are you?”
The worst moment ever was when I offhandedly mentioned Carly Simon one evening and Liz asked “Who’s Carly Simon?” 
Nope. I’ve never heard of it. I was born in 1962. I wondered to myself that it might be from Fibber McGee and Molly; but didn’t know what it meant.
On a somewhat related note; I recently heard my mother in law say something was as “ugly as Molly’s ass.” There wasn’t by chance a donkey on Fibber McGee and Molly was there? 
Anyone know the origin of that phrase?
Hah! I just found that I asked this very question back in 2006!