Decision making in retirement!!

Its a bit different here kitty as once we both conclude a room would benefit from a change I tend to be the ideas person and Mr C provides the muscle. My ideas usually evolve from a colour which often means we find some things blend in and others automatically deselect themselves I don’t think much has changed with retirement other than we often decide there are more interesting things to do .

So happy to read this post as I/we feel exactly the same about decision making now. We look and look then discuss then discuss again about many things, some plans go forward others are still being discussed. It's quite a discontented feeling as before we retired we just got on with everything no matter what the project was. Old age doesn't come itself - my mum always said.

I think we can be overwhelmed by myriad choices at times. I daresay we are lucky to have them - first world problems I think the younger ones started calling them?

Occasionally it’s the little things that add to the confusion! I’ve been known to say to my husband ‘you just decide I’m happy to eat/visit/do whatever as I can’t make a decision today!’

I was once told a trick which has helped me.
It may help you too.

Write a list of choices (as you have above), then just pick one, any one, you can even do it eyes-closed with a pin.

Then call that 'our decision' and let it mull over in the mind for a week or so.
It soon becomes apparent if it's not the right choice.

Then you go back to your list and cross it off.
If it seems right, cross off the others !


It's like having 22 different choices of shampoo in the supermarket - we can do without all that hassle.

As for decorating. I was always told the carpet is the last thing to replace when refurbishing a room.

We usually give each other suggestions - my DH is always sending emails with suggested holidays.

We too are planning to redo our lounge next year but have whittled it down to new chairs and lights. We decided the rest was fine especially after cleaning the carpet.

Whether we get round to doing any of these things is another matter. In the end I have to make the decision. We are having a new bathroom next week - talked about it forever but eventually I made the appointment with the shop concerned and started the ball rolling.

I think one of you has to grasp the mettle.

Yes, kitty, it's all a bit overwhelming! I keep telling myself that it's because we've found contentment and that that doesn't involve struggling to make decisions. During our busy working lives we had to fit everything in in a hurry whereas now we have all the time in the world to dawdle.
We've decided to divide up the labour, DH is to take on the building projects as he us very practical and used to dealing with contractors. I'm more for the creative things so that is working fine. Holidays are a problem area, too many lovely places to visit, though on a recent thread here I was pleased to see we had already "done" about 75% of the lovely suggestions.
The decisions we make on a daily basis like when to walk the dog or where to go for lunch are easy enough, maybe the bigger ones will come with time.

So many choices! We usually take a while thinking about big decisions like holidays or home improvements etc. Actually I quite enjoy that bit. Weighing up possibilities all of which are nice is a very pleasant aspect of having time to think and talk about it all.