Passions: Need some inspiration for a spring clean? Stacey Solomon can help

It’s time we all asked “Do you want it? Do you need it? Do you love it?”

Stacey Solomon’s formula for clearing and sorting works every time. Picture: BBC/Optomen TV/Vincent Dolman

I need to spring clean the house from top to bottom and to give me the energy to take on this massive task I'm seeking inspiration from my favourite programme, Sort Your Life Out. Helmed by Stacey Solomon and her crack team of domestic operatives a formula is applied and it works every time.

First we snoop around a very messy home, sometimes so cluttered that the team can't even get the front door open and have to go in through the back.There is a bit of schadenfreude I am slightly ashamed to admit. My hall cupboard is a bit of a tip and let's not talk about the garage but at least I can see the surface of the kitchen table and my clothes are in the wardrobe rather than, Sort your Life Out classic, piled on top of an exercise bike. I think what really gets me about this show is how there can be so many different reasons for people's living conditions to become out of control. There are families dealing with bereavement who have opened their home to nieces and nephews without having time to clear space for them. In series four there were tales of bankruptcy and medical diagnoses.The accumulation of stuff is such a modern problem with new everything just a click of a mouse away. Some of the families are told they have to lose 50 per cent of the contents of their home for them to have a chance of creating a more ordered existence.There are attics and sheds packed to the gunwales which the team must tackle too.The story arc remains comfortingly the same in each episode. We see the scale of the problem, the contents of the house are carted off to a warehouse where the families must sort through their stuff. Meanwhile back at the ranch Iwan offers cleaning hacks, Stacey makes bonkers DIY projects, borderline genius carpenter Rob reuses, repurposes and creates storage space.Professional organiser Dilly is my favourite though. Her straight talking mantra, “Do you want it? Do you need it? Do you love it?" can be applied throughout the house and she bosses that warehouse like a three star general. And once the life-changing magic of letting things go takes a hold families start merrily lobbing their possessions into the donate, recycle or sell piles and the team gives a sigh of relief. Time to sort my life out.

Alison Gray is Assistant Editor of The Scotsman