What in the hail is Clustercore?

According to our girl Martha, Clustercore is “the art of displaying your personal collections in thoughtfully designed vignettes.” Yes, it’s that, but it’s also “where in the hell do I put this marble polar bear?”. Throughout the years, I have accumulated crap that, well, isn’t all crap exactly, but I don’t want to put it somewhere for the sake of putting it somewhere and I don’t want to get rid of it. Enter: Clustercore.

Before you call me out for tapping into the slightly “Live, Laugh, Love” trend of putting my books backwards, I assure you I am aware of how lame this is and promise it is temporary. Having moved from a shoe box, I didn’t happen to have enough books to fill an 8ft. bookshelf. It is the one and ONLY time my husband’s hoarding helped as he kept all of his college technical textbooks and his collection of sci-fi novels with ugly covers. Yes, I am aware I sound like a book snob because I am, in fact, a book snob.

Here are some things you can consider when filling a space, be it a nook in your room or 8ft. of shelving:

• Art Books

  • I have bought (and stolen) lots of these over the years My father is an artist and has an enormous collection; however, as my Mom constantly (and annoyingly) likes to remind me, I married my father. I swear the man has his art books tapped. I found a book on Durer in the depths of his basement and he somehow figured out I took it.

• Random oddities

  • Take a look at your “stuff”. I had these robins scattered around my house but they were better nested (see what I did there?) here. Not only do they add color with their adorable little faces, the are the state bird of West Virginia which is where I hail from.

• Color coding

  • Also not an original concept, but you don’t always have to make it perfectly Home Edit. Go with similar hues or themes - see, not ALL of my husband’s Sci-fi novels were hidden

• Book ends

  • They don’t all have to be book-endy. Look for eclectic items that can fill the space - they are frequently marked down or hidden in the depths of a flea market.

I try to swap items out as new finds come in (the Professional Organizer’s credo) and get rid of some of the less unique items, but at least this is an ever evolving way to display the crap…er, stuff that you accumulate as you continue down the spiritual path of collecting crap…er, stuff that brings you joy.