The art of closet organizing according to Giulia Torelli

If there is one thing that we learnt from the pandemic, it is that living in a clean, tidy and organized environment, and making decluttering a lifestyle, can help us achieve a new serenity within the walls of our home (and not only).

Everyone that is passionate about fashion and the phenomenon of reorganizing spaces, certainly had the chance to follow the advice of Giulia Torelli, aka @rockandfiocc, blogger and closet organizer who is revolutionizing the world of decluttering in Italy.

"Since the first lockdown - spending a lot of time at home and having fewer opportunities to dress up than before - we have realized more and more that our wardrobes are full of clothes we don't use, so the need for decluttering was spontaneous, and it is becoming more and more part of everyone's lifestyle; it is also a growing trend, in fact it is discussed more and more on social networks and many people are discovering it." - Giulia told nss G-Club.

Her profession comes from a great passion for fashion, and Giulia is letting people discover it through her social channels where over 150K followers ask her for style advice and how to rearrange their wardrobes. Our wardrobes can tell a lot about us - and Giulia knows it well - so is there a better way to start a new personal journey than by starting from your own wardrobe? From this idea her book came up: La nuova te inizia dall'armadio, the first book by Giulia Torelli, available from March 25th, a guide to learn how to select the unnecessary and get rid of it, to reorganize our wardrobe according to our taste and personality and to understand how to enhance and express our personal style.

nss G-Club spoke directly with Giulia Torelli, to discover all the details about her new book and to better understand the world of closet organizing from her point of view. Enjoy!

Hi Giulia, tell us about your journey to become a closet organizer and, today, a writer of your first book.

In my free time I have always done decluttering for myself and my friends, and when I read Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and I discovered that for her it was a real profession, I realized that I wanted to do this job too. In Italy it was still little explored, so I decided to create my website and go for it: it all started with word of mouth - friends, friends of friends - and then I started communicating on social media so also my followers started to get interested; in the first few years it was pretty quiet, I used to go to people's houses and to do a couple of sessions a month, then during the first lockdown the situation exploded! Also, just before the lockdown, a publishing house contacted me to offer me the book, which was initially supposed to be published last year but the pandemic slowed the process.

How has the way you tell and experience your work changed with the lockdown?

Spending much more time at home, people started calling me from other cities as well and I started doing closet organizing sessions through video-calls.
Before the pandemic I used to go to people's homes (basically accumulators) and find huge closets with a lot of decluttering to do, so the sessions usually took a whole day; but now younger girls who do not have much to declutter call me, and they are looking for the opposite: they follow me on Instagram and following my advice and my philosophy they have already done the decluttering themselves, so they call me to fill the wardrobe, for advice on pieces to buy based on their style, but also for information on materials and sustainability.

On social media you often tell about your job and curiosity is sky high. How does a decluttering and consulting session with you take place?

It depends on what the customer asks me, in general there is always a first part of decluttering in which we look at the wardrobe, we talk about the lifestyle, what they like to wear, what are the garments and accessories they like; then we analyze the whole wardrobe piece by piece and decide what to keep and what to leave, or, if via video call it becomes too complicated, we analyze only the pieces on which the customer is undecided. Then (if it is a live consultation) there is the organization part: I arrange the entire wardrobe - including accessories - by category, by color, by season, according to the client's preferences. During the consultation I also understand which garments or accessories the client needs, and then I prepare a personalized shopping list by budget, by body type, by colors, and send it after the session.

Most of the customers are women, the age varies from 18 to 50 years old. Sessions can last differently based on several factors: they can last from an hour (if the clients are younger with a "small" closet or very determined and with clear objectives), to 2-3 hours when the cabinets are fuller or there is indecision. It happened that a job lasted almost 7 hours!

The 3 style tips your clients ask you more frequently?

Everyone is looking for the perfect jeans, or pants in general: I would say that this is the most frequently requested advice. In second place shoe for the mid-season, which is not a boot, nor a ballerina, nor a loafer, perfect for every day and for every occasion. Last but not least, in winter, the most common advice is about the coat.

Your book is titled: “La nuova te inizia dall’armadio” - how is the new you, the new Giulia, since you embraced this type of lifestyle?

I have always had this type of lifestyle - I have always been tidy - but since the last year I have been more and more immersed in it, also because I'm constantly talking about clothes and wardrobes, so I am aware of what I need and therefore I buy much less clothes.
I have always done decluttering for myself, I have always looked for my personal style and what represents me, and today it has become a real lifestyle.

My first book collects what I have always talked about in my blog, but more in details: there is the part about decluttering and about the organization of wardrobes (but also of other areas of the house), and the part of "find your personal style” where I also explain how to buy and sell, how to read labels, how to understand and analyze the composition of a garment.

You can find the book La nuova te inizia dall’armadio online and in bookstores from March 25th: ready to embrace a new lifestyle and revolutionize your wardrobe?