If you’re like me, over 12 months I tend to add a lot more to my already overflowing amount of items.
From clothes, books, shoes, bags, beauty items and little trinkets, my home ends up looking like a jumble sale by the end of December.
That’s why, with some inspiration from the nation’s favourite declutterer, Essex’s Stacey Solomon, I’ve now made it a tradition to go through all my belongings every January.
In previous years, I would throw myself straight into the process and, within an hour or two, get flustered and want to quit.
But, this year, I decided to take a different approach.
Using the wise words and advice of Stacey and her Sort Your Life Out team, I began Mission Declutter 2025.
I sorted my life out with Stacey Solomon’s tips
Dump it all out
If you’ve ever watched the star’s BBC show, Sort Your Life Out, you’ll be aware that they empty families’ entire homes to make it easy to look through all the items.
Well, I didn’t have a BBC production budget so took on the simpler, one-person team approach of section by section within my home.
I dumped out all my drawers one by one, choosing to organise the easiest one first, as advised by Stacey to not get flustered.
On the left the organised socks and the right, the dumped out pile. (Image: Newsquest)
So, I headed to the sock drawers that always end up as a jumble of mismatched pairs, lonely socks or socks hanging on by a thread and are more holes than cotton.
Starting with socks meant the process began with a bang, with a quick look at each item I knew exactly which worth were saving and which would be heading to the recycling bin.
Feeling success from a now organised sock drawer I headed to the rest of my clothes in the drawer and dumped them all out.
Sort it
When it comes to clothes, I tend to do a big clearout around twice a year, at the start and in the summer, typically the swap from winter items to summer.
With a massive pile of clothes on my floor, I began to sort through it, but with a different approach to the simple socks.
The before and after of more now organised wardrobe. (Image: Newsquest)
Aware that clothes can have a more personal connection, Stacey suggests going through every item to find out what you love, what you need and what you no longer need.
So, I began to shift through all my clothes and ended up with a bigger recycling pile, two big bags full of clothes to donate and drawers that could shut again.
Stacey’s three simple categories meant there was less of a personal connection and a more focused simple approach that made the whole process quicker and hundreds of times easier.
Organise it
Away from dumping out drawers and sorting through my clothes, Stacey often shares the importance of organising your home and the items within them.
When it comes to a disorganised area in my home, it’s my beauty drawer, filled with hairbrushes, handheld mirrors, lipsticks and all the beauty refills.
I use the beauty draw daily and as such it can quickly turn into a mess if I don’t keep on top of it.
The before and after of my beauty drawer. (Image: Newsquest)
But, using Stacey’s advice on making sure everything has a home meant I knew that if an item didn’t fit in the space, it wasn’t meant for the space.
So, I got all my beauty items together, reorganised and ended up with a space that feels organised and simple.
Stop if you get flustered
Away from decluttering and organising, on Sort Your Life Out, Stacey shares that if you get flustered with the process, step away and take a break.
Adding that there’s no need to complete decluttering in one day and that it can be spread over some time, just make sure that you do, eventually, finish decluttering.
The items I’ll be donating. (Image: Newsquest)
Stick to it
Although organising is a key part of decluttering, Stacey shares that one of the key pieces of information to remember is to keep on top of the organisation and tidying.
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Whether that’s making sure when you’ve used an item to put it back where it belongs or not buying new items to fill the space you’ve just decluttered, the BBC presenter often reminds families on Sort Your Life Out to stick to it.
So, with Stacey’s wise words in mind, I’ve made a promise to myself to keep my home organised and for 2025 to not make my space cluttered again.
Fingers crossed I don’t break that promise.