
Stacey Solomon is as effervescent and delightful in real life as she is on Instagram, and it is obvious from the moment she walks into the room with an ear-to-ear smile.
However, the tremendous increase in costs in the UK, which is leaving households much worse off, has her concerned and reminding us of the critical role organisation can play in weathering the cost-of-living storm.
In the second series of her BBC show Sort Your Life Out, Solomon and her team of specialists assist people improve their homes with a life-changing declutter – but this series has the added element of discovering the best ways to be “as inexpensive as possible”.
The 33-year-old thinks a lot of people are trying to be thrifty, but perhaps not doing it “in the most efficient way”.
“For example bulk buying, and then things are going off because they’re not organised enough to utilise it. I think this year it’s a lot more of a necessity to be organised because everybody’s feeling that it’s going to be really difficult for the next few years,” she notes.
“And so we’re not just looking on the show at how do we organise just to make you feel good and get your life back on track, but also how do we organise and then help you for the future, how do we help you be more economical, save on your washing machine bills and your laundry bills by being organised.
Solomon, who gained to popularity after finishing third on the sixth series of The X Factor in 2009, believes there’s a lot more “urgency” in being organised now than there was in the first series of her successful TV programme, given the UK’s predicted recession.
Solomon, who gained to popularity after finishing third on the sixth series of The X Factor in 2009, believes there’s a lot more “urgency” in being organised now than there was in the first series of her successful TV programme, given the UK’s predicted recession.
“When you’re watching the energy bills go up and the petrol prices go up, you just think: I have no control over this, and it’s a really terrifying situation,” she says.
Solomon mentioned that one of the families he assisted for the second season of Sort Your Life Out had a “little fortune” hidden among their clutter.
“Clutter is expensive. We discovered an enormous amount of cash in their home that they were unaware of, and they were struggling, and it made a significant difference, like a genuine huge difference.
“That is the cost of clutter, it can literally lose you money on a daily basis. It can be in the back of your jean pockets, fall out and you won’t ever find it again or it will be in a bag that you have shoved to the back of a wardrobe and never see again.“That’s physical money that people are losing.”
Solomon, who is pregnant with her fifth child and married to former EastEnders actor Joe Swash, says she is concerned about how rising prices would effect her family and that it is a “dangerous time” for everyone.
“Unless you’re from a background where you know for the rest of your life you’re intrinsically rich, these times are dangerous. We don’t have solid jobs; we know that we could have a job today and not have one tomorrow. That is the volatile nature of our sector.
“I told Joe that due of the rising cost of electricity and gas, we needed to come up with a plan because we couldn’t keep our wage up indefinitely.
“As much as people say we don’t have to care about the cost-of-living crisis, we absolutely do, it’s a major aspect of our life and if we’re worried about it, then everybody is in the same scenario and it’s simply dangerous times.
“So, if there’s anything you can do in terms of easy everyday modifications that will save you a significant lot of money, let’s simply do it; it has to be the best option.”
The TV personality, who is from Dagenham in east London, has created a reputation for herself on the social media site in recent years, thanks to her 5.5 million followers who have shared her organisation suggestions, storage tricks, and upcycling projects.

Solomon said her favourite part of Sort Your Life Out is transforming a home almost exclusively through upcycling and making a “massive point” of recycling next to everything the family decide to part with to ensure it has “a life beyond when we let it go”.
She adds there are many things in her own home that provide her with a sense of achievement when she looks at them and thinks “I did that” – including her daughter Rose’s bedroom.
“I made her entire room myself, I upcycled a chest of drawers that were Rex’s (her son’s) and every time I open them I think this was Rex’s and now it’s Rose’s which makes me happy.
“I made her a flower wall, I did panelling on her wall and it was so difficult, I had to filler the life out of it, at the end I was nearly crying…
Now that I look at it, I believe I built that wall.
“I decorated a room for Joe in our house that I’m really proud of, it’s his games room and I really love it. I’m really proud of what I did.
“I did some panelling on the wall, made a dartboard area and even screwing stuff to the wall I get really proud of because I don’t think people realise how easy it is to use power tools – so long as you’re careful, do your research and you have confidence, it’s much easier than it seems.”
Solomon has a lively home in Essex called Pickle Cottage, and she and Swash are also parents to one-year-old Rose and three-year-old Rex, while she has two kids from previous relationships, 14-year-old Zachary and Leighton, 10, and is also step-mum to Swash’s teenage son, Harry.
Speaking about pressing the reset button after Christmas, she adds: “I would say to my family, please don’t buy the kids presents, because they actually end up buying them tat – in the nicest way possible, not to be ungrateful.
“I understand it but then you’ve got to think where’s this going to go, how am I going to use it, is it going to end up in landfill in five minutes’ time.
“There’s something so nice about resetting in January, I love getting to the end of the Christmas holidays and going ‘that’s it, I’m starting again.’ New year, fresh start, clean slate, and it’s almost like a reset button, which is nice.”
Stacey Solomon’s Sort Your Life Out premieres on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Wednesday, January 25 at 9 p.m.