Five years ago, I sat behind a car in the drive-thru drop-off at a Goodwill in Hopkins, MN. In my car was the last of my late mother's property, the stuff that we couldn't use and didn't have room to store. And I wondered: "Where's it go?" Then it was my turn to unload.

I spent much of the next four years in pursuit of an answer. I went to Tucson, and spent time watching donations flow through the door at @goodwillsouthaz, watched them get sorted, and priced.

I went dumpster diving for furniture and signage at a closed Perkins in Golden Valley, MN.

I went to Tokyo and accompanied companies hired to clean out, sell, and toss out the belongings of Japan's aging, shrinking population.

I went to Panipat, India, the world's hub for the recycling of wool clothing from affluent, developed countries ... and learned why it's becoming obsolete (hint: polyester).

I visited Higashimatsuyama, Japan, where a company has figured out that used Made in Japan boomboxes are for Japan's high-end vintage market, and used Made in China ones go to Mali, Afghanistan, and other countries that appreciate a lower price point.

I spent time in Newark, Ohio, where the 200-year-old tradition of making rags from old clothing persists and profits to this day (by the way: ~30% of used US clothing is made into rags). https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-wiping-rags/

I traveled to Cotonou, Benin, and warehouses where Nigerian men sort imported secondhand clothes into custom grades that can be sold into specific Nigerian towns. They know fast fashion by feel - a pinch of thumb and forefinger - and it usually doesn't make it.

I had the joy of visiting @daidai_koenji, one of Tokyo's great vintage shops, where the marvelous Mio Ojima transforms her US flea market finds (she loves the Rose Bowl Flea Market, btw) into artful fashion.

I went to Savelugu, Ghana, where master repairman Ibrahim Alhassan fixes and retrofits 40-year-old televisions for his neighbors, who like to sit around and watch his genius at work.

I spent time in Mississauga, Ontario, one of the world's great (and hidden) hubs for the used clothing trade. It's an immigrant-founded and run business (go to hell, Don Cherry), and it's made all of us - every one of us - more sustainable in our day-to-day lives.

I walked around Tema, Ghana, a port where containers of used stuff from around the world is unloaded and - in many cases - displayed at hundreds, maybe thousands, of street-side stalls that serve a thriving secondhand trade.

Along the way, I figured out where some of my mom's stuff went (well, two things), learned that the afterlives of our stuff are far more global, hopeful, and fascinating than I ever expected ... and wrote a book, which is being published today.

It's available for purchase wherever you like to buy your books, and available for borrowing at hundreds of libraries around North America. I hope you'll give it a look. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/secondhand-9781635570106/

@BloomsburyPub