diff --git a/drivers/base/core.c b/drivers/base/core.c
index 9a6c71038616eb8e78154231edb8e1227e3e177f..cf8c605ec32eaeb65cc3f234d68ee91cc4d7286c 100644
--- a/drivers/base/core.c
+++ b/drivers/base/core.c
@@ -1597,6 +1597,8 @@ static void cleanup_glue_dir(struct device *dev, struct kobject *glue_dir)
 		return;
 
 	mutex_lock(&gdp_mutex);
+	if (!kobject_has_children(glue_dir))
+		kobject_del(glue_dir);
 	kobject_put(glue_dir);
 	mutex_unlock(&gdp_mutex);
 }
diff --git a/include/linux/kobject.h b/include/linux/kobject.h
index 7f6f93c3df9cef5b734108df3f1041e8d7a0ab37..270b40515e798aca887d1dd44bd04d31b0331697 100644
--- a/include/linux/kobject.h
+++ b/include/linux/kobject.h
@@ -116,6 +116,23 @@ extern void kobject_put(struct kobject *kobj);
 extern const void *kobject_namespace(struct kobject *kobj);
 extern char *kobject_get_path(struct kobject *kobj, gfp_t flag);
 
+/**
+ * kobject_has_children - Returns whether a kobject has children.
+ * @kobj: the object to test
+ *
+ * This will return whether a kobject has other kobjects as children.
+ *
+ * It does NOT account for the presence of attribute files, only sub
+ * directories. It also assumes there is no concurrent addition or
+ * removal of such children, and thus relies on external locking.
+ */
+static inline bool kobject_has_children(struct kobject *kobj)
+{
+	WARN_ON_ONCE(kref_read(&kobj->kref) == 0);
+
+	return kobj->sd && kobj->sd->dir.subdirs;
+}
+
 struct kobj_type {
 	void (*release)(struct kobject *kobj);
 	const struct sysfs_ops *sysfs_ops;