The cultural practice of decluttering as household work and its potentials for sustainable consumption

Abstract

Popular literature and guidebooks on minimalism and decluttering have brought the idea of “less is more” into the mainstream. Although decluttering constitutes a central household chore in consumer societies, it is rarely communicated as work within the current popular minimalism discourse, but rather as an expression of self-care. Whether and to what extent this “lifestyle minimalism” can contribute to sustainable consumption has – with a few exceptions – not yet been studied in detail. In this article, decluttering is first conceptualized in between housework and self-care. Based on this work, potentials and limits for the promotion of sustainable consumption are outlined. Finally, initial insights from an ongoing citizen science project on decluttering in Germany are presented. The qualitative results from two workshops and two reflection exercises show that the main motivation for participants is the dissatisfaction with their multitude of possessions and the desire for fewer material possessions in the future. The decision to declutter can be understood as a window of opportunity in which individuals are willing to reflect on and realign their possessions and desires for goods. Thus, we argue that decluttering can be a relevant starting point for changing consumption behavior toward (more) sustainable consumption. At the same time, it remains unclear whether and to what extent the participants' willingness to change regarding possessions and consumption actually leads to more sustainable consumption behavior after decluttering. It is even conceivable that the newly gained space will stimulate additional consumption. Decluttering would then rather function as a catalyst for further consumption (and would have no or rather a negative contribution to sustainability goals). Further research is needed to shed light on this.

Sufficiency in Business

“…As a central minimalist method, decluttering can also promote reflection and learning processes about one's own consumption behavior and possessions. First studies show that these reflection processes can have a positive effect on reduced acquisition behavior (Chamberlin/Callmer 2021;Muster et al 2022). In summary, it can be concluded that lifestyle minimalism can indeed have positive effects on disseminating sufficiency-oriented consumption practices.…”

“…Since Marie Kondo's bestseller "The life-changing magic of tidying up" (2014) and uncounted subsequent books, magazine articles and videos, minimalism is regarded as a so-called lifestyle trend (Muster et al 2022).…”

Having less: A personal project taxonomy of consumers' decluttering orientations, motives and emotions

“…In particular, a limitation is that nearly all of our participants were female, and somewhat older than the median age of U.S. adults, which in 2020 was 38.4 years old. Women are more involved in decluttering because of traditional gender roles regarding domestic housework duties (Belk et al, 2007; Muster et al, 2022). In a 2019 survey conducted by Google with 3525 U.S. adults, 60% of those planning to declutter were female and 43% were between the ages of 45 and 64 (McGrath, 2019).…”

How social media usage and the fear of missing out impact minimalistic consumption

“…First, the academic research suggests that on average, women consumers have a more positive attitude toward shopping than men (Campbell, 1997), women shop more frequently than men (Roy Dholakia, 1999) and women are more interested in fashion than men (O'cass, 2004). In addition, women tend to be more involved in decluttering than men because of traditional gender roles associated with household chores (Belk et al, 2007;Muster et al, 2022;Roster and Ferrari, 2023). Second, popular media and industry reports also suggest that on average, female consumers have higher purchase rates for apparel categories and are more engaged in purchasing apparel than male consumers (Stuart, 2019).…”

“…In addition, women tend to be more involved in decluttering than men because of traditional gender roles associated with household chores (Belk et al. , 2007; Muster et al. , 2022; Roster and Ferrari, 2023).…”