diff --git a/src/libostree/ostree-repo-commit.c b/src/libostree/ostree-repo-commit.c
index 6cd3fcf4..533cf03a 100644
--- a/src/libostree/ostree-repo-commit.c
+++ b/src/libostree/ostree-repo-commit.c
@@ -1624,9 +1624,18 @@ ostree_repo_prepare_transaction (OstreeRepo     *self,
     self->txn.max_blocks = bfree - self->reserved_blocks;
   else
     {
-      self->cleanup_stagedir = TRUE;
-      g_mutex_unlock (&self->txn_lock);
-      return throw_min_free_space_error (self, 0, error);
+      self->txn.max_blocks = 0;
+      /* Don't throw_min_free_space_error here; reason being that
+       * this transaction could be just committing metadata objects
+       * which are relatively small in size and we do not really
+       * want to block them via min-free-space-* value. Metadata
+       * objects helps in housekeeping and hence should be kept
+       * out of the strict min-free-space values.
+       *
+       * The main drivers for writing content objects will always honor
+       * the min-free-space value and throw_min_free_space_error in
+       * case of overstepping the number of reserved blocks.
+       */
     }
   g_mutex_unlock (&self->txn_lock);
 
diff --git a/tests/installed/nondestructive/itest-pull-space.sh b/tests/installed/nondestructive/itest-pull-space.sh
index baf1042f..e365b86d 100755
--- a/tests/installed/nondestructive/itest-pull-space.sh
+++ b/tests/installed/nondestructive/itest-pull-space.sh
@@ -45,6 +45,17 @@ echo 'min-free-space-size=1MB' >> repo/config
 ostree --repo=repo pull-local /ostree/repo ${host_commit}
 echo "ok min-free-space-size (success)"
 
+# metadata object write should succeed even if free space is lower than
+# min-free-space value
+rm -rf mnt/repo
+ostree --repo=mnt/repo init --mode=bare-user
+echo 'fsync=false' >> mnt/repo/config
+echo 'min-free-space-size=10MB' >> mnt/repo/config
+if ostree --repo=mnt/repo pull-local --commit-metadata-only /ostree/repo ${host_commit} 2>err.txt; then
+    fatal "could not write metadata objects even when min-free-space value should allow it"
+fi
+echo "ok metadata write even when free space is lower than min-free-space value"
+
 rm -rf mnt/repo
 
 # Test min-free-space-size on deltas