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An Apartment Therapy writer reported that a two-hour closet cleanout using the “one touch” rule left 47 items in her donation pile. The approach allows only three destinations for each item—keep, store for the season or donate—with no “maybe” pile; the result is a personal account, not evidence that everyone will achieve the same outcome.
An Apartment Therapy writer says she put 47 clothing items in a donation pile after using a mover-recommended “one touch” rule to sort her fall closet during a two-hour session. The personal account describes a method that requires each item to go directly into one of three categories—keep, store for the season or donate—rather than being set aside for a later decision.
The writer said seasonal clothes had become difficult to search through, and she once spent nearly 20 minutes looking for jeans in the crowded closet. She set up three destinations for clothing: items staying in the closet, off-season clothes going into storage, and donations. She worked in small batches, beginning with the top rail, and eventually used bags and bins instead of loose piles.
The method was shared by Sarah Balducci of BMS Moving & Storage, whom the report identifies as a moving expert. Balducci recommends making an immediate decision each time an item is picked up, with no “maybe” pile or limbo box. She also advises sorting in sessions of no more than two hours and rotating seasonal clothes into storage.
By the end of her session, the writer said, the donation pile contained 47 items. She included pants she had kept in case they fit again and clothes she described as duplicates. She also found a favorite sweater that had been hidden beneath a coat. The report does not say that all 47 items were subsequently donated or track what happened to them afterward.
A Smaller Task, One Decision at a Time
The account offers readers a specific way to break a closet cleanout into individual decisions, rather than treating the whole wardrobe as one large project. Removing the option to defer a choice may help someone who tends to accumulate a large “maybe” pile, as the writer says she did. Balducci’s suggested limit of two hours per session also gives the task a defined stopping point.
The reported outcome is personal, not a measured test of the method. The writer says she found sorting more manageable and set aside 47 items, but the source provides no comparison with other approaches, independent evaluation or evidence that the rule will produce the same result for other people. Its practical relevance is the clear sorting structure, not a guaranteed item count or time saving.
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The Rule Behind the Closet Cleanout
The writer framed the cleanout as a response to a seasonal storage problem: summer dresses, light jackets, sweaters and coats were crowding the closet as fall arrived. After struggling to find jeans, she searched for an organizing approach and came across the rule through advice from a moving professional. The article says movers use it to help clients downsize before moving.
In the version described, each garment gets one handling and one destination: keep it, store it for the season or donate it. The writer compared the process to treating each item as “lava-hot,” an image she used to describe making a quick choice without hovering or revisiting it. She divided the work into small batches and kept only a few items in her hands at once.
“The one touch rule”
— Sarah Balducci, moving expert at BMS Moving & Storage, as quoted in Apartment Therapy
What the 47-Item Count Shows
The 47-item figure is the writer’s account of what ended up in her donation pile at the end of one afternoon. The source does not confirm whether every item was later donated, how many items were sorted in total, or whether the closet remained easier to manage over time. It also provides no independent evidence about how the method performs for other households.
The report does not specify the date of the cleanout beyond describing it as a two-hour afternoon session, or give details about the donation destination. The method’s results may depend on the person’s wardrobe, storage space and willingness to make immediate choices; those factors were not evaluated in the account.
Donation and Seasonal Storage
The source describes the writer’s donation pile and seasonal storage plan but does not report a follow-up on either. For readers applying the same approach, the next steps implied by the method are to move off-season clothes into storage and take the donation items to a chosen recipient. Whether the writer did so, or repeated the process in a later season, remains unreported.
Apartment Therapy’s account presents the rule as a practical option rather than a tested guarantee. Any further assessment would require follow-up on whether the closet stayed organized and whether the items marked for donation left the home.
Key Questions
What is the one-touch rule for decluttering?
It is a sorting method in which each item is handled once and sent directly to one of three places: keep, store for the season or donate. The version described by Apartment Therapy has no “maybe” pile.
How many items did the writer set aside?
The writer said she put 47 items in her donation pile after a two-hour afternoon session. The report does not confirm whether all 47 were later donated.
Who recommended the method?
Sarah Balducci of BMS Moving & Storage, identified in the article as a moving expert, shared the rule and related closet-sorting advice with the writer.
How long does the method take?
The writer’s cleanout lasted two hours. Balducci recommends sorting in sessions of no more than two hours, but the article does not claim that every closet can be finished in that time.
Source: rss
