Gemma donates some of her time helping out at a Housing Works thrift shop in Brooklyn.

It’s her way of giving back to her community. It’s also a nice way to make friends: she and the other volunteers discuss the merits of the donations and figure out where to put them in order to show them off to their best advantage.

Gemma is unfailingly struck by the rich array of objects that fill the shelves. Fill them, completely, to overflowing.

Gemma looks at each object and thinks a variety of things. First, she thinks: someone designed this object. Someone thought this object ought to exist in the world.

Then she thinks: someone manufactured it.

Someone sold it.

Someone bought it.

Someone had it in his or her home.

Someone then decided they didn’t want it any more, and brought it to Housing Works in a plastic bag. This part makes Gemma a little bit sad. She thinks of Marie Kondo’s book about tidying up. Marie Kondo says that everything in your home should bring you joy. Gemma wonders: at what point did this object cease to bring joy to its owners? Or, who knows, maybe it never did, maybe it was inherited or something.

But the most amazing and wonderful part of this mundane yet weird narrative: someone else may now buy it again! And it can have a brand new, joy-bringing life.

Many of these objects bring Gemma momentary joy. How could they not? Just look at them! But that doesn’t mean she’s going to take them home with her. You have to be careful about what you bring into your home.

Gemma is made from a beautiful suede-like fabric that I found in the discard bin outside of a going-out-of-business store on 40th Street (thanks again Vivian). Her turtleneck is made from pajamas, and her pink jeans are made from a little girl’s pink jeans, both are from Jennie.

Gemma’s apron is from a fabric sample from Anne, and the straps are a pj bottom drawstring. Her boots are made from a jewelry bag and orange felt, and her bracelet is a mood ring that used to belong to my daughter. It has tiny animals on it. Gemma’s mood, by the way, according to the mood ring, is relaxed.

The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.

—from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo

Special thanks to Deirdre.