Here at Good Housekeeping, we’re always on the lookout for brilliant new decluttering tips and tricks – and sometimes, we turn to our friends for a little bit of advice. Enter Dilly Carter, BBC One’s Sort Your Life Out expert and bona fide decluttering genius.

Starring on the cover of GH’s March issue, Dilly opened up about her fascinating life story – from her chaotic childhood to surviving cancer - and inevitably, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask her for some decluttering tips while we had her. Did she deliver? Oh yes. In fact, her advice might just change your life.

The secret to saving hours on your spring clear out (anyone else dreading it?), she told us, is to begin it with a ‘space audit’. The idea is that you take a piece of paper and a pen, and go around your home – starting from outside.

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cover of good housekeeping magazine featuring dilly carter with various articles highlighted
Jonty Davies

“Take a moment to look at your house or flat and consider how lucky you are to have a roof over your head,” she advises. “That’s really important, because we rush in and out of our homes and never appreciate them.”

Then, she shared, work through each room, making a note of what you like, what you dislike and what you’d change. Once you’ve done that, it will be obvious where you need to start. Not only will it save you time, it will also make you appreciate your space that bit more.

Of course, one of the best ways to deal with clutter is also to stop buying stuff, and Dilly admitted she’s very careful when it comes to the purchases she makes.

a person wearing a lightcolored suit sits casually on a red plastic chair against a red background
Jonty Davies

“Look, I love fashion as much as the next person, but I’m very controlled in what I buy,’ she says. “If something’s coming into my wardrobe, then something’s also leaving it.”

The professional organiser will soon be returning to our screens in a new series of Sort Your Life Out, but in the meantime, Dilly has her sights set on even bigger goals. She wants to go into schools and teach kids how to run a household, educating them not only about tidying, but also budgeting and learning about the mental health benefits of an organised home.

"I want to empower, educate, motivate and inspire people through my own life experiences," she says.

Read the full interview in Good Housekeeping’s March issue on sale from 30th January.

To find out more about Dilly’s decluttering business, Declutter Dollies, or to sign up for courses, visit declutterdollies.com.