Hand-me-down jackets come with stories stitched in. Someday something of yours will be somebody’s hand-me-down.

Objects carry the people who used them first. A jacket with a pen mark in the pocket and a stretched cuff is evidence that somebody lived in it before you, and wearing it puts you in a line instead of at the start of one. Everything you use hard is quietly being prepared for whoever gets it next.

Take care of one thing you intend to pass on, and find out the history of something you were handed. Ask who had the jacket, the tools, the bike. That story costs nothing and is only available while somebody still remembers it.