I’m Stacey Solomon’s decluttering expert – my ‘rule of 3’ can be applied to every room in your house

STACEY Solomon’s co-star and decluttering expert Dilly Carter has revealed how her “rule of three” can transform every room in your home with minimal effort.

Dilly, who stars on BBC One’s Sort Your Life Out with Stacey, appeared on ITV’s Lorraine to give her top spring cleaning tips.

The home organising expert, 43, shared how it can be overwhelming thinking about going through your home, but you should take it one room at a time.

And there is one room that she recommends you tackle first.

She said: “I think the bedroom is a great place to start, sleep is one of our most important commodities, it's what we need the most of and if our bedrooms are not a relaxing place or looked after then that is going to affect everything.”

Here are her three simple tips for transforming your home…

Bedroom

1. Vacuum your mattress 

Dilly recommended that you should vacuum your mattress at least once a must as “dust builds up.”

She said: “This gets neglected a lot, but it is so important. We have spent all winter in our beds with heavy duvets on and blankets all the dust builds up.

“Think of all the skin in the mattress, it is a bit gross.”

2. Rule of three for bedding 

You may be tempted to hoard different bedding sets, but you only need three, according to Dilly.

She explained: “How many of us have so much bedding? 

“So I would like to say one on, one off, one spare. That is the guideline for how much you should have.

“Obviously if you have kids at bed wetting stage then it would be great to have some more spare sets, but really a lot of us have 20 sets of spare bedding, ideally we would like to reduce that amount.

“So go for the rule of three, it gives you a guideline and if you know you have double that then that's OK, but quadruple - then maybe too much.”

3. Store away winter duvet 

Now that warmer weather is around the corner, the organising expert recommended packing away winter duvets.

She said: “It's that time that we don't need those 10 togs. 

“We can opt for something a bit lighter so pack them away, vacuum pack them, and then you have more space to put that spring duvet on.

“Anything that you can pack away to save space is always going to be a good idea because the idea of decluttering is to create space in the house to make us feel lighter.”

Lounge

1. Lay everything out 

We like to use our lounges to unwind after work or a long day, but having too much mess in there can have the opposite effect.

Dilly said: “We like to go in there to relax don't we, that should be the place where we switch off and kick back at the end of the night.

“But it's usually the space where all the toys are and all the washing, there is all kinds of chaos  that goes on in the living room. 

“Get everything out that is bothering you.”

2. Put similar items in groups

Dilly said there can be an easy way to reduce the amount of clutter in your home.

The home expert advised: “Group what you can, then reduce what you can, then put everything back.

“It might be that you don't have enough storage, work out what you have in your front room and think what could look neater so when you do relax you are not looking at piles of chaos.”  

3. Get rid of three small things

While decluttering can seem like a huge task, Dilly has a trick to making it easier to handle.

She shared: “Often we can feel too overwhelmed thinking I need to declutter, get everything out of my house but start with something small, three items, start with something small, bite size challenges.”

Kitchen

1. Check dates on food

One easy way to clear out your kitchen is to get rid of old food immediately.

Dilly explained: “Start from the left hand side and work your way around, make sure you put everything out, check the dates. 

“Whenever we pull anything out of a cupboard we want to group it. 

“Make sure all your tins are together, your pastas are together, snacks, breakfast items so then you can create zones when you put everything back.”

2. Use a smart layout

Dilly shared: “You might have all your breakfast containers on one shelf, all your snacks on another, what we want is for the kitchen to flow.” 

 3. Reuse containers

The home expert advised that you can save money on containers by reusing old items in your home.

She said: “Using containers is so important, we get boxes through our doors all the time, we have old Quality Street tins and coffee jars to pack away pulses, grains and all of those things. 

“Try and use what you have got.”

Often we can feel too overwhelmed thinking I need to declutter, get everything out of my house but start with something small, three items, start with something small, bite size challenges

Dilly Carter

Bathroom

1. Create a calm space

Another room that needs to have minimal items is your bathroom.

Dilly shared: “We want a lovely bathroom that we can go in and escape and feel like we are just unwinding, we don't want products all over the bathroom sides.”

2. Rule of five  

It can be tempting to stock up on the latest cleaning products when you are shopping, but you only really need five.

Dilly shared: “When it comes to cleaning products we have a lot of our products in the bathroom which is just not necessary, think about the essentials that we might need near our toilet, it's probably just bleach.

“We should only have five cleaning products in general. It might just be an antibacterial, bleach, Fairy Liquid. 

“It might be a specialist cleaning product. But then that is it.”

3. Keep window sill clear 

One quick way to instantly improving your home is by paying attention to your window sills.

She shared: “So many of us block our windowsills with products, we can't see out so it's nice to have light clear surfaces.”