Blog tour: Lost and Found

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Welcome to the blog tour for Lost & Found: 9 life-changing lessons about stuff from someone who has lost everything by Helen Chandler-Wilde!

More about the book…

On New Year's Eve of 2018, journalist Helen Chandler-Wilde lost everything she owned in a storage unit fire in Croydon, where she'd stowed all her possessions after a big break-up. She was left devastated, and forced to re-evaluate her relationship with owning material things.

A mix of memoir, self-help and journalism, Lost & Found explores the psychological reasons for why we buy and keep the things we do, and explains how we can liberate ourselves from the tyranny of 'too much'. Helen interviews people from all walks of life, including behavioural psychologists on the science of nostalgia, a nun on what it's like to own almost nothing and consumer psychologists on why we spend impulsively, to help us better understand why we're surrounded by clutter and what we can do to change it.

This smart-thinking book explains the sociological quirks of human nature and the fascinating science behind why we buy and hold onto things. By the end of it, your relationship with your belongings will be changed forever.

More about the author…

Helen Chandler-Wilde is a news and features journalist at Bloomberg.

Previously she worked at The Telegraph writing long-reads, analysis and covering the human tales behind the headlines.

She went to UCL where she studied social sciences and Italian and also holds a MA in journalism from City University.

Helen lives in south London, and in her free time she likes to read, cook and rummage through charity shops.

My impressions…

The publisher described this as ‘an exploration into why we keep holding on to material things and what they mean to us’, and I was immediately hooked. If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you probably know that the fight against stuff is one of my passions. Call it decluttering, minimalism, Swedish death cleaning… you name it, I’m intrigued.

This book begins with the question: If you could save just one thing from a fire, what would it be?

I struggled to come up with an answer. Not because there are too many things that I would be heartbroken to lose, but because there is nothing more important for me that the people I love and the memories in my head. Most other things can be replaced. And those that can’t be replaced… well, it would be a shame to lose them, but not the end of the world.

Whatever your answer to that first question, this book will inspire you to think about the science behind our behaviours. Why do we buy? Why do we collect? Why can’t we let go of sentimental items? Written in a clear and approachable way, this is a great resource for anyone interested in this subject or looking to understand, and possibly change, their attitudes towards material possessions.

Three words to describe it. Inspiring. Informative. Interesting.

Do I like the cover? Yes, I like its simplicity.

Have I read any other books by the same author? I might have come across her journalistic work before, but I’m not sure.

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