@thecut

“Me and everything in my room have a relationship,” says Marisa, 21. The walls of her room are plastered with love letters from her boyfriend, her mom’s handwritten piecrust recipe, and plastic animal masks from her hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico. A foot-long shelf is mobbed with trinkets and a pink Hello Kitty tin, a character she was “obsessed” with as a child. There is an unopened box of pastels she got on a family trip to Japan nine years ago and her fuzzy blue Neopets CD case — the digital pets were popular in the aughts — that she recently found on eBay. This is ✨Cluttercore✨ a handy, TikTok-searchable catchall for an aesthetic that demands every available surface be covered with the type of tchotchkes and doodads the rest of us would shove in a box or simply throw away. Marisa first heard the term a few months ago and immediately embraced it. “Maximalism sounds very adult,” she says, though she uses the hashtag. “Cluttercore is very childish, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.” This version of “more is more” has a focus on sentimental or nostalgic objects: Sanrio plushies, fairy lights, pages torn from Rookie. “It instantly reminded me of when I was a kid in the early 2000s,” says interior designer Hugh Long. “The look is very Lisa Frank meets Tony Duquette.” Head to the link in bio for an in-depth look at the cute and chaotic trend. 📸: @maggiehshannon