5 Ways to Have a More Sustainable Waredrobe

Earth Day is a time to reflect on your enviornmental footprint.

Making small but consistant change in the way you consume fashion can make a huge impact. We recommend making a resolution to make one change going forward.

Here are 5 resolutions in order of impact.

2. Rent your clothing.

Renting from Valhalla is one of the best (and fun) ways to consume fashion sustainably. 100% of our inventory is sourced from our customers so we don't produce anything new. We also make sure that our inventory gets as many uses before it reaches our sales floor.

We know that when a business makes sustainable choices, it can have an incredible impact as a business as the potential to consume so much more than any one household. That's why we incorporate sustainable practices throughout our business. With respect to laundry, we use plastic free laundry soap and a Filtrol Filter that collects microplastics. You can rent stress free knowing we have you covered when it comes to supporting the environment.

Not a member yet? Book a complementally styling session now.

2. Only buy used.

When you only purchase clothing used, you're not supporting additional clothing production and the enviornmental and social injustices that come along with new clothing manufacturing. You're also usually supporting a small business or charity shop as well.

3. 30+ wears rule for purchases.

When you do need to purchase a newly manufactured item, try to keep the 30+ rule in mind which is, "will you wear this 30 or more times." When you get more wears out of your items, less clothing is wasted.

4. Donate.

When you know you won't wear an item again, donate or sell the item to a charity shop or local resale shop. Donating regularly is a win, win. Your item will see more wear before it reaches it's end of life, your closet is more roomy, and not cluttered with "guilt" clothing. One thing to keep in mind is to donate an item quickly once you recognize you will not wear it again. The longer you hold on to an item, the closer it is to becoming out of style and the less desirable it becomes.

5. Use refillary laundry soap.

We have two refillery shops located in the Tampa Bay area. Lufka and Sans Market. The concept is you bring a container to fill with their products. You can find all sorts of home and beauty products at these local shops but we especially recommend them for laundry. All of our laundry soap comes from these two shops.

Clothes with a Story: An Unusual Donation Request

A few weeks ago, a woman walked into the store with an unusual story. She was from out of town and attended a funeral of a retired soul singer. At this funeral, pieces of the singer's wardrobe was gifted to people that attended so that people that loved her would have something to remember her by. The problem came in that she was flying back home and had no way to get it back. She decided to give it forward and left it with us to spread the love.

As we don’t just sell clothing, we rent it, we saw that this might need to be washed several times and we didn't want to ruin this coat. We discussed as a team how we wanted to move forward with the coat and settled on writing down its history, slipping it in the pocket, and donating it forward in hopes that it finds a lovely home that appreciates where it comes from.

Valhalla St. Pete is Now Open

We've made it to St. Pete!

Since we opened, we had a vision to expand Valhalla to every major city and we've taken the next big step in making that happen.

Thanks so much for helping us achieve our goals. We couldn't have done it without our fabulous members and amazing customers.

Things to know

We're purchasing at the St. Pete location. We left plenty of room for all of our St. Pete friends to clean out their closets and benefit from store credit.

We're now accepting Styling Session appointments for St. Pete. Styling Sessions are for someone who is ready to sign up for a new membership. You'll complete a style profile online and then select a date. We'll have items styled just for you at your appointment. A Styling Session isn't a requirement for membership but it is a fun way to experience it for your very first time.

Membership is good at only one location - for now. We may add a tier to the membership that would allow for duel membership later on down the line. Stay tuned.

We still offer member referral bonuses for new members. Flex those member referrals! Know someone in St. Pete that would flip for a membership? Tell them to mention your name at check out and we'll make sure you both get the benefit. The member referral bonus lets them get half off their very first month of membership and lets you get your next month at half off.

In our first month, we won't be open the same hours as Tampa. We'll be open 11-7 everyday except Fridays and Saturdays we'll be open to 5. We'll be closed on Mondays.

Follow us our St. Pete IG if you're near by. Tell your St. Pete friends to follow us if you're not.

3 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Environmental Impact

Some within the clothing industry believe clothing is the number two polluter in the world, right next to the oil industry.  Because the clothing industry is incredibly complex: long supply chains, manufacturing, clothing construction, shipping, and the disposal of the each item, we may never know it's full impact on the environment. 

There are easy things we can do today to lessen the environmental impact: dispose of our unwanted clothing sustainably, change the way we consume, and when we do purchase clothing, purchase from the used market.

1. Dispose of unwanted clothing by donating. 

Only about 15% of textiles are donated each year, the rest ends up in landfills.  An outstandingly low number when you realize what happens to donated clothing. The average American throws away over 80 pounds of textile waste per year.  These discarded textiles are typically made out of synthetic material that takes hundreds of years to decompose. 

Instead of throwing away textiles, donating them is the environmentally responsible thing to do.  Most thrift stores, including Goodwill, make sure that damaged or unwanted clothing gets recycled.  In fact, half of the clothing donated ends up recycled.  30% ends up as rags and 20% is processed into fiber for things like furniture stuffing, insulation, etc.  What happens to the other half?  Well, 20% is sold locally, 25% is sold overseas to developing nations, and about 5% is deemed unusable due to mildew.

Clothing Donations

2. Change the way you consume. 

With the advent of fast fashion, we are consuming more clothing that ever; 80 billion new pieces a year.  That's 400% more than we did in the 1990's.  Because we are consuming so many clothes, we treat them as disposable goods rather than the durable goods they are (or should be).

We need to drastically change the way we consume clothing.  Buying clothes because they're deeply discounted or because new styles are coming from H&M and Zara weekly is not sustainable, not to mention, good for your wallet. 

That's why Valhalla was founded on the principle of the collective closet.  Instead of each individual owning hundreds of items that are rarely worn, we can share a neighborhood closet of thousands of ever changing items; clothes that have a continuing life instead of being discarded after a couple of wears. The collective closet actually lets you consume more but in an incredibly environmentally sustainable way. 

3. Purchase used clothing. 

Voting with your dollar is one the of the most powerful and easiest way to make a statement about your values.  Consumerism is alive and well in the US and one of the best ways to reduce the waste from this behavior is to buy used when possible and when it comes to clothes, there are lots of used choices.  Buying used means that you're reducing manufacturing demands - and all that slave labor - and helping keep clothing out of landfills; a double whammy deal!

Ultimate Capsule Wardrobe

It's Spring, the time of year you reassess the items you accumulated throughout your life, specifically the items in your closet.  I'm going to tell you the secret to having it all: a clutter free closet, cash from unwanted items, and the ultimate: never saying "I have nothing to wear" ever again.  The secret: a capsule wardrobe supplemented with Valhalla's collective closet.

The Secret to Having it ALL

• Clean, organized closet
• Minimalist lifestyle
• Turning your unwanted items into value
• Access to a community closet of over 2000 ever changing items
• Best of all, never saying "I have nothing to wear" ever again

What is a capsule wardrobe?

A capsule wardrobe is where you ruthlessly cut your current wardrobe down to almost nothing; between 30 and 35 pieces, including shoes.  You can keep the accessories but the few items you're left with are the items you'll be wearing exclusively for the next few months.  You'll want these pieces to be items that pair well with other items; usually neutral colors.

Sounds boring right?

I like variety.  I know, that's not exactly the point of a capsule wardrobe. 

I like the minimalist idea of a capsule wardrobe, in fact, I've embraced it hardcore.  I only have about 15 items of clothing but I religiously wear something different every single day.  In my closet, I only have the "essentials" that work with other items; cardigans, camisoles, leggings, etc.  To supplement these essentials, I have a community closet, Valhalla, full of different items in different sizes (for the weeks I eat salads and the weeks I don't).  I don't have to have my closet cluttered up with items I'll only wear a hand full of times and best yet, I don’t have to spend money on buying clothes. 

How to do it?

Closet Clean-out

Start by taking every single thing out of your closet.  I mean every s.i.n.g.l.e. item needs to come out.  There are a couple reasons everything needs to come out:  1. How are you supposed to see anything with all the clutter? 2. You need to evaluate every item in there, might as well do it comfortably instead of hunched and crunched in the closet. 

I suggest placing it on your bed, that way you have no excuse to put it off once you get started.  If you're not finished that day you'll be sleeping on giant piles of clothes.  Ugh! 

Let the Sorting Begin!

You'll need to make a two piles:

L.O.V.E. Pile: this pile is only for clothes that look fantastic on and you will wear.  Not, "I might wear" or "I used to wear".  Straight up, this pile is only for "I'm going to wear."  This pile is not for items with sentimental value.  If you have a couple things that you feel you need to keep for the memories, take them and put them somewhere else; somewhere they'll be safe but not seen on a daily basis.

Sell/Donate: Get rid of everything that doesn't belong in the love pile.  If you don't love something, it doesn't deserve closet space.  Everything, including damaged or very worn items should go in this pile.  "Why donate damaged clothes?" you ask.  When you throw away clothing it ends up in a landfill decomposing at an astonishingly slow rate - Not good for the environment.  When you donate to a thrift store, about 50% of items end up being recycled anyway so why not let it be donated instead of ending up doing harm to the environment?  Remember: Valhalla purchases used clothing for store credit and will donate anything we don't take.

Donated Clothing

Notice I didn't leave room for a "maybe" pile.  A capsule wardrobe has no room for "maybe" items.  You'll need to be excited to wear every single item your closet.  After all, the point is to be left with a small amount of items that work well together and fits you in both style and size.

Winter Options

As we live in Florida, I suggest leaving no room for winter items except for one jacket and a coat (if you have one) in case you travel somewhere cold.

A traditional capsule wardrobe should comprise everything you'll wear for the next few months or longer and nothing else so it's essential that all the pieces work together to give you the maximum variety in composing outfits. 

Capsule Wardrobe + Valhalla's Collective Closet

Having access to Valhalla's collective closet, I keep only things that are essential for supplementing my rentals.  I usually don't even wear my own clothes at all since I typically choose to wear a dress from Valhalla but if I choose a tunic, I'll pair it with my own leggings.  Or if I know I'm going somewhere chilly, I'll throw on a cardigan of my own.  It keeps my closet clutter free and makes getting dressed in the morning oh so easy!