All participants indicated that adopting a minimalistic lifestyle afforded a myriad of wellbeing benefits. The key themes and sub-themes (in parentheses) were identified as: Autonomy (freedom/liberation, aligning with values, authenticity); Competence (feeling in control of environment, less stress and anxiety); Mental Space (saving mental energy, internal reflecting external); Awareness (reflection, mindfulness, savouring); and Positive Emotions (joy, peacefulness). 4.1 Autonomy As previously mentioned, participants reported that minimalism assisted in raising their awareness of their values and what is important to them. Findings also suggest that the mental space created by minimalism facilitates awareness in other, varying ways. The sub-themes of creating awareness are reflection, mindfulness, and savouring. Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(2), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090197. Glaser, B. G., & Stauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

I think by becoming a minimalist you become more aware of what really expresses you or what you really value…And I think by having this awareness, you kind of become more authentic. (P4).

Dopierała, R. (2017). Minimalism – A new mode of consumption? Przegląd Socjologiczny, 66(4), 67–83. https://doi.org/10.26485/PS/2017/66.4/4.

Many participants, particularly those with children, highlighted saving time as a result of spending less time cleaning and organising, which contributed to this feeling of freedom. Participants were sought through purposeful sampling (Patton 1990) which enabled the researcher to find participants who met participation criteria of self-identifying with the term “minimalist” or identifying as living a minimalistic lifestyle. Participation was sought through social media groups relating to minimalism and through the primary researcher’s personal and professional networks.

Chancellor, J., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2014). Money for happiness: The hedonic benefits of thrift. In M. Tatzel (Ed.), Consumption and well-being in the material world (pp. 13–47). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7368-4_2. McDonald, S., Oates, C. J., Young, C. W., & Hwang, K. (2006). Toward sustainable consumption: Researching voluntary simplifiers. Psychology and Marketing, 23(6), 515–534. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20132.

Self-choosing one’s own behaviour that is congruent with one’s sense of self was a key theme in the study. Sub-themes within autonomy included a sense of freedom and liberation, aligning with one’s values, and a sense of authenticity. Wright, N. D., & Larsen, V. (1993). Materialism and life satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, 6, 158–165 Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284155427. Fournier, S., & Richins, M. L. (1991). Some theoretical and popular notions concerning materialism. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6(6), 403–414.

Similarly, it has been suggested that the relationship between wellbeing and thrift, “a lifestyle of strategic underconsumption” (Chancellor and Lyubomirsky 2014, pg. 13), is linked to the satisfaction of one’s need for safety, autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Kasser 2011). While this connection has not yet been empirically supported, under this needs-based theory, thrift in some circumstances would satisfy these needs and enhance wellbeing, whereas in other circumstances it would interfere with these needs and diminish wellbeing, which helps to explain some inconsistent findings relating to thrift and wellbeing (Kasser 2011). Many participants spoke about feeling stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, or uncomfortable in the presence of clutter. Most participants reported a reduction in stress and anxiety after adopting a minimalistic lifestyle. A number of participants only realised after adopting the lifestyle that their excessive possessions had been a major cause of this stress and anxiety.

I find it’s much easier…and it’s just not as stressful and I don’t have to continually feel like I’m chained to domestic tasks to make my house presentable. (P9). Jacob, J., Jovic, E., & Brinkerhoff, M. B. (2009). Personal and planetary well-being: Mindfulness meditation, pro-environmental behavior and personal quality of life in a survey from the social justice and ecological sustainability movement. Social Indicators Research, 93(2), 275–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/sl1205-008-9308-6. Possessions before allowed me to be inauthentically something that was more socially acceptable, now my possessions are more an expression of who I consider to be my authentic self. (P8). 4.2 Competence Elgin, D., & Mitchell, A. (1977). Voluntary simplicity. CoEvolution Quarterly, 3, 2 Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313754669_Voluntary_Simplicity_in_Co-Evolution_Quarterly_1977.Richins, M. L., & Dawson, S. (1992). A consumer values orientation for materialism and its measurement: Scale development and validation. Journal of Consumer Research, 19(3), 303–315. https://doi.org/10.1086/209304. Kasperek, A. (2014). Wyrażanie sprzeciwu poprzez duchowość. przypadek minimali- zmu”. Stan Rzeczy 2:179–197. I would walk into my [home] office and see the clutter on my desk and see the things all over the walls...I would just feel my heart rate rise, you know…and my chest seize up and I had always just kind of thought, ‘well that’s just how work is’. But now that things are so much more cleared out and it’s just an open space… I don’t have chest tightening from the space…It just makes me breathe easier. (P1). It’s almost like saving your brain energy by reducing the things that you have to actually think about. Sometimes it’s people just occupying their brain with these things and for me it’s like I just think to myself, ‘God, I’m so glad I don’t have to divert any brain power to those sorts of things’. (P5).