Meet the people taking decluttering and downsizing to the next level.

There’s no denying that we’re living in an age obsessed with downsizing, conscious living and ethical purchases. But what would you say if someone asked you to take it so far that your worldly possessions consisted of just three shirts, four pairs of pants and four pairs of socks?

You’d run for the hills, surely?

But according to a recent feature on The Guardian, more and more people are are embracing the “hardcore minimalist” lifestyle with gusto and embracing the reconsideration of what we really need to be happy.

Hardcore minimalism: where less is so much more. Source: iStock. 

The trend, which has particularly taken hold in Japan, really puts a new spin on what one considers the bare essentials to be. Objects as mundane as bedside tables, floor rugs and armchairs are out, a single table and futon only are in.

“It’s not that I had more things than the average person, but that didn’t mean that I valued or liked everything I owned,” Katsuya Toyoda said, explaining his apartment's interior change.

“I became a minimalist so I could let things I truly liked surface in my life," he continued.

No lamps, no bedside tables, no socks on the floor. Source: iStock.

For 36-year-old Fumio Sasaki, it was a similar story. One that was not so much driven by the issue of money, but rather a desire to get to know himself better.

“I kept thinking about what I did not own, what was missing,” he says of his life before adopting hardcore minimalism.

After a year of selling and giving away what he considered to be unnecessary possessions his life transformation began. Now, Sasaki says, his time has been freed up in a number of ways.

An open room, an open mind. Source: iStock. 

“Spending less time on cleaning or shopping means I have more time to spend with friends, go out, or travel on my days off. I have become a lot more active," he admits.

The idea of hardcore minimalism is one that builds not on Marie Kondo's "KonMarie" way of living so much as more ancient traditions.

“In the west, making a space complete means placing something there,” Naoki Numahata, a 41-year-old hardcore minimalist says, continuing, “but with tea ceremonies, or Zen, things are left incomplete on purpose to let the person’s imagination make that space complete.”

Lover of decluttering and junk clean-outs, Marie Kondo. Source: Getty. 

Aside from the physical and emotional freedom that's sure to accompany a decluttering of living spaces, there's also practical reasons behind hardcore minimalism.

In Japan for example, apartments and living spaces are notoriously tiny. The country is also prone to earthquakes.

According to Sasaki, between 30 - 50 per cent of earthquake injuries in Japan occur through falling objects. But by physically removing objects from a room, you've also just heightened the safety of the space and those within it as well.

One this week's episode of The Well, Robin Bailey and Rebecca Sparrow talk about why Denmark is officially the happiest place in the world...and their tradition of hygge. Listen below.