I lost everything I owned in a storage unit fire where I stored my possessions after a break

Release time：2024-05-21 16:35:21 Source：Culture Compass news portal

A woman who lost all her worldly possessions after a fire tore through a self-storage unit has revealed what it was like to lose everything she owned.  

Helen Chandler-Wilde, 29, initially thought it was a 'joke' when she heard of the devastating blaze at the Shurgard self-storage units in Croydon on New Year's Eve in 2018. 

The journalist and writer, then in her mid 20s, had moved back in with her parents after a bad break-up and had packed all of her possessions - 'furniture, sentimental stuff, books' - into the storage unit. 

Having suddenly lost everything, Helen soon realised which possessions in life are actually most important and which we can go without. 

She has now written a book titled Lost & Found, where she documents the painful process of building up her life again from scratch. 

Helen Chandler-Wilde lost all her possessions after a fire tore through a storage unit on New Year's Eve, 2018

The New Year's Eve fire at the Shurgard self-storage unit in Purley Way, Croydon tore through 1,198 rented units and was tackled by around 120 firefighters

In the book, Helen speaks to psychologists about the relationship between ourselves and our things, including the 'dopamine rush' that comes with buying new things and the human tendency to become attached to our objects. 

'No one had died but it almost felt like I was grieving', Helen writes about the deep loss she felt after the fire, adding: 'I was a snail without my shell'.  

And speaking to FEMAIL, Helen said: 'I think it made me much more aware that you can't rely on like physical things to make you happy. 

'When you start from scratch, I think you do have this little opportunity to really think about what is it that I want. 

'I think it's super common in the way our culture is set up for people to collect things and buy lots of things and do loads of shopping - especially every time you open social media.'

Helen opens the prologue to her book by asking: 'If you could save just one thing from a fire, what would it be? I wish I had been offered the choice.'  

The New Year's Eve fire at the Shurgard self-storage unit in Purley Way, Croydon tore through 1,198 rented units and was tackled by around 120 firefighters. 

The building was destroyed after being deemed too unsafe - as hundreds of people lost their belongings - and with them, many of their memories.  

The storage unit before the fire - when Helen had moved around a quarter of her things in

Helen has now written a book titled Lost & Found, where she documents the painful process of building up her life again from scratch

Helen's first move was to start to replace the essentials, such as saucepans, and she was given a bed by a friend of a friend. 

Soon, she began to miss the little things, including a box of hairbands when she needed to go for a run, and a coffee table with a red wine stain - a fond memory from a night with friends. 

A particularly sore spot was losing over 1,000 books to the flames, and being left with a bookshelf, gifted from her parents, with nothing to fill it. 

'It is weird to have nothing that sentimental or nice,' Helen said. 

Losing physical objects also came with the loss of memories and emotions tied to the objects. 

Helen continued: 'I do think there's still a lot of sadness there because there were items that were so unique, like from a specific country which you're never gonna go to again. 

'I had a rug that came from Kosovo, and obviously you're not going to go back to get one. That stuff was so nice and beautiful. In my mind I can walk around my old house in my head and see everything as it was even though that was years ago now.

'I had all these letters that my uncle had written me over the years when I was a child. It was sweet little poems and jokes and stuff, but he's died now. Sentimental stuff like photos are just irreplaceable because it makes you remember the person.'

An eventual insurance payout of around £2,000 covered less than a third of Helen's possessions. 

The fire at the unit destroyed the belongings of hundreds of people, taking away their memories as it did so

Pictured: The blaze at the self-storage warehouse, which was later destroyed due to the damage

Faced with yet another blow, she realised there was a small advantage to her bleak situation.

'I had a rare chance to start from scratch,' she writes in the book, and these moments of reflection allowed her to consider what she truly needed. 

Helen now lives in south London with one flatmate - and a collection of meaningful and good-quality things.  

She said: 'I have a small amount of stuff that I really love and I've given lots of other stuff away. 

'I think it's much better to get something the secondhand and a bit quirky and it feels so unique, rather than something generic that like everyone has.'

She now focuses on purchasing high quality items, usually second-hand, from charity shops, Vinted or eBay, that will last a long time, and has also cut down the amount of stuff she owns considerably. 

Lost & Found is available to buy now

Now her most prized possessions include a small TV - one of the first things she re-bought after the fire - a Victorian side cabinet from an antiques shop, and a floral sofa from IKEA.  

In October 2022, she even did a 'no buy month', only purchasing essentials like food - and has kept these habits ever since. 

'I think it showed me that you can just get by with living with essentials for a really long amount of time. It can be more relaxing to do that and just so much less stress,' she explained. 

'Nothing is actually truly permanent and I think that's something I learned, you can look after an antique and you can call it like a museum level of preservation and it will still be decaying all the time.'

Elsewhere in Lost & Found, Helen explores why people are drawn to collecting things in the first place - from displaying status, to the thrill of collecting new items - and the book contains insights from several psychologists. 

Lost & Found gives seven key lessons learned from losing everything, sparking the realisation that 'she was not what she owned'. 

Helen said writing it was like a 'super long therapy session', revealing: 'It helped me to get a lot of clarity and understand why I was so upset and why our minds are wired to get attached to our possessions.'

Lost & Found by Helen Chandler-Wilde is out now. Published by Octopus Publishing Group, RRP £20.  

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