What Happens To Your Used Stuff?

The first thing I learned about shopping after moving to Texas from the Caribbean was this: Go to Goodwill.

When I needed my first hoodie, I went to Goodwill. When the carpet in my tiny studio got dirty, I bought an old vacuum cleaner at Goodwill. What I didn't know at the time was that I was participating in the billion-dollar industry of used hard goods. After reading journalist Adam Minter's Secondhand: Travels In The New Global Garage Sale, I now understand how it works not only in our country but across the world. I also understand that most people are hoarders, humans always put sentimental value on worthless items, and we now collect things and fill the space around us faster than at any other time in human history.