What Sort Your Life Out doesn’t show you: Producer lifts lid on TV show's hidden rules and surprising organisation hacks

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a show called Sort Your Life Out, there’s a lot of organisation and planning that goes into each episode.

A producer for the hit BBC series fronted by Stacey Solomon revealed show secrets, including how it takes a team of over 20 just to sort through people’s belongings, how one of the most iconic shots of each episodes takes a day and a half to complete, and the unseen grace period where homeowners can claim back their belongings.

As shared by Richard Osman on the podcast, The Rest is Entertainment, he spoke with show producer Charlotte Brookes, who answered some of the show's most commonly questions. And the answers might surprise you.

First up, do they go into someone’s home and make it look messier for entertainment purposes? "Before the process begins… families are explicitly told not to tidy up. People always ask if the team makes it better or worse," Charlotte says.

Condensing someone’s life into organised piles then requires a lot of manpower. "The packing is done by the family alongside the on-screen talent, with around 15 runners and the removals company handling the heavy lifting," she continued.

What might be surprising - and could potentially inspire your own decluttering in the future - is the unusual way they go about packing up someone’s home.

Unlike a normal house move, which would typically group things up by room, "everything is packed by item type rather than by room. So all the books together, all the chargers together, all the toothbrushes together… this makes the warehouse layout possible."

While it might sound unconventional, the benefits could include seeing just how much clutter you’ve accrued. If you end up with dozens of chargers, for example, do you really need them all?

Once they’ve packed the items, as viewers of the show know, the family's whole life is laid out before them in an empty warehouse.

Charlotte revealed the "unpacking and laying out [of] the warehouse takes a team of roughly 20 people about a day and a half. One of the really great shots in Sort your Life Out is when you see everything in their house just laid out - that takes a day and a half just to do that."

This is because the producers aren't just unpacking, they’re identifying meaningful story items and logging where they sit in the warehouse as they go.

They don’t just stumble upon sentimental pieces by chance for the episode. Charlotte explained: "The team that talks to families extensively beforehand about specific objects, they can then be tracked from the initial snoop through the warehouse to the final renovation."

This might sound produced or manufactured, but it’s necessary. According to Charlotte, there’s around 400,000 items in an average home - so they need to identify sentimental and show-worthy items, and keep tabs on them.

Now, another question everyone asks. Where does all the embarrassing stuff go?

"Families are asked to remove anything super valuable before the process starts", Charlotte told Richard, "Anything private or confidential - including adult accessories - are placed in a sealed box and returned off camera."

Most people on the show might be elated by their decluttered, organised homes, but there’s actually a grace period viewers don’t see, in which they can ask for any of their thrown out items back.

Charlotte told Richard, "After filming, discarded items are stored for about six days as a grace period - families often need a week to adjust, producers give them a tour and remain available by phone to help them.

"During that grace period, it becomes the family’s responsibility and call what to do - they can bring things back or the show will help them set up an account on the likes of Vinted or eBay, or identity car boots, but they won't do the actual selling for the family."

While a lot of the show is thoroughly planned and mapped out, there’s one thing that just comes naturally - Stacey.

Charlotte said, "Stacey’s DNA is all over the show. Her total empathy, zero judgement and genuine obsession with crafting and organisation. Her life experiences as a mother-of-five in a blended family means she walks into every home believing it could be hers. You can’t produce that."