Ready to embrace cluttercore? Head to these eclectic L.A. shops

As kids, we really knew how to decorate. Time-travel back to your childhood bedroom and gaze upon those four walls: Perhaps you’ll find a tear-out (or 10) from teen magazines of a broody Brad Pitt, Radiohead album cover posters and the sweetest Sanrio accessories with the talismanic power to elicit joy. Just me? Probably not. Your younger self’s design choices told visitors exactly what you liked, where you’d been and what you valued. But somewhere along the way, we all started decorating for other people — or to match the picture-perfect images we see online and in magazines: white-on-beige minimalist palaces with nary a fastidiously curated item out of place.

But maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. (And, really, who lives like that?) Enter cluttercore, a social-media-boosted design sensibility that frees you to curate your home with the enthusiasm and freedom you had as a teen by simply displaying what you love — without regard to how those items might match the room’s color palette. The cluttercore vibe is highly personal, so a Raiders fan might fill a wall with framed team photos and memorabilia over black and silver wallpaper, because fandom is all about layering. That empty living room tabletop needs a mini shrine to Harry Styles with shadow boxes of concert ticket stubs. And instead of just throwing away that wine cork, you could write the date and initials of when and with whom the bottle was shared, and start a collection of beautiful memories displayed in a bowl. The aesthetic is a little bit unexpected, a lot kitschy, and usually makes for some great conversation starters.

Cluttercore, like many other things on social media, has hazy origins (some claim it started on Tumblr or Twitter), but TikTok has seen the biggest growth of the trend, with #cluttercore amassing more than 92 million searches. Achieving the aesthetic is about embracing your own authentic sense of what works in your space and what you love. It’s often grounded in nostalgia, because those Linkin Park posters that gave you a thrill back then could still do exactly that today.

Achieving the cluttercore space of your dreams can be simple: Just dust off and display things that still bring you joy but are currently stored in the garage. If your taste has changed since your teens, fear not. These seven shops specializing in eclectic collections will help you jump-start your best cluttercore life. After all, who wouldn’t want to live more authentically in 2023?