Avoid Decision Fatigue: Don’t Feel Overwhelmed When Designing Your New Home

Choosing the options and colors for your new home should be fun, but the truth is that it can be a grueling process once you’re past the honeymoon phase of signing your purchase agreement. When you’re building a home from the ground up, you’re making decisions for almost every aspect of the home. That’s an entire range of possibilities in front of you, all requiring a decision.  Whether you’re finalizing lights to choosing countertops, the decisions you’ll be faced with can turn an exciting experience into a stressful one. This phenomenon is called decision fatigue.

The good news? With the Design Studio on your side, you’ll be equipped to navigate the process with ease, coming out on the other side with confidence in your decisions, and a beautiful new home.

Why Exactly Are There so Many Decisions to Make?

A new build allows the homeowners to choose from a plethora of options to truly make it their home. This means that a single room is comprised of many choices which in turn can be broken down into numerous smaller decisions. For example, when selecting kitchen cabinetry, you aren’t just picking the color. You’re also deciding on:

• Cabinet layout and storage
• Hardware finishes and door style
• Material
• Paint/stain
• Soft close vs. traditional hinge
• Integrated lighting or outlets

What’s more, other selections in your kitchen work in tandem with your cabinetry. Countertop material and thickness, appliance specs, flooring material and pattern, plumbing, sink type and size, and even your light fixtures can all play a part in just this “singular” selection!

Apply that cabinetry example to every other major element in each room of your new home, and the list of choices you’ve got to make suddenly increases tenfold. This may lead to decision fatigue and frustration. It’s imperative to take the right steps toward managing the process. With the help of our team of consultants at the Design Studio, we’ve compiled practical advice to help you do just that!

Simplify the Decision-Making Process

Have a Vision Board or Idea Map of Your Inspiration

Before meeting with any of our consultants or an interior designer, and perhaps even before you officially sign a purchase agreement on your new home, it’s a good idea to collect and organize different pieces of inspiration. Here are some ideas on where to start:

• Drive through our communities (in Michigan or Missouri) and take photos of the homes you like. If we have a model or display, go inside to get more photos and a feel for a fully decorated home.
• Save images of homes and styles you like from online from resources like Pinterest, Instagram, and home blogs.
• Gather samples, photos, and examples of features, finishes, and fixtures you like, find interesting, or believe would be a good fit for your home.
• Look through homebuilder galleries and magazines
• Check out social media pages from designers you discover while checking other resources in this list, and get ideas from them and those in their community that are at a similar stage as you.

Once you’ve got a good list of images to define your aesthetic taste, needs, and wants, organize them in the way that suits you best, be it a physical binder, a Pinterest board, or your phone’s camera reel. Not only will this be a good way to keep your ideas catalogued at a glance­, but it will also make it easier to update should you realize something is no longer to your tastes or too far out of budget.

Work Closely with Your Team

Keep the process smooth by openly communicating with your team. Your team may vary depending on who you build with, but when you’re building with Lombardo, your team is comprised of your sales manager, construction coordinator, and Design Studio consultant. You might also have your own interior designer included here.

Careful planning at key stages with your team helps ensure that nothing gets swept under the rug during your build and selections, and that at the end of this journey, you’re getting what you want.

Consider an Interior Designer

When trying to avoid decision fatigue, working with an interior designer can be one of the most helpful decisions you can make. They can organize your vision board if you’ve already made one, or create one based on your likes and dislikes. An interior designer can take your vision and translate it into a cohesive combination of finishes, fixtures, and other elements for your entire home. This can streamline the selections process, allowing for less stress on your end, as these professionals often have the experience to know what to ask so you get what you really want out of your home. They can also help you avoid mental drain by presenting the options that best reflect your desired aesthetic and required budget.

When you build with Lombardo, your design consultant works in much the same way, offering years of experience at bringing dream homes to life. At our Discovery Event, we collaborate closely with you to fully understand how you live and what matters most to you. This knowledge, combined with the presentation of selections at your appointment, will help us help you make the most informed decisions for your home.

Designers can also help with pacing and prioritizing different selections to minimize pain points and timing out what can and should be done first. Some decisions need to focused on to avoid delays. Since not every decision needs to be made at your appointment, it’s important to get through custom requests or other time-sensitive selections as soon as possible.

Designers also know how to enhance the functionality of your home. This will ensure your home will flow well and be practical, all while avoiding costly mistakes from later renovations, supply shortages, or missed timelines.

Prioritize Your Decisions

As mentioned above, not every decision needs to be made right away. Some things are time-sensitive, so it’s good to ask if something you want or need can be included. Our team notes that custom option requests (CORs), kitchen selections, and bathroom selections often need to be the primary focus early on, as they can impact the foundation of the home, plumbing, and other aspects of the build. Ask your design consultant for a timeline for each phase of the process so your selections can be ready.

If something is particularly important to you, don’t be afraid to bring it up. Focus your involvement where it matters most, and work with others on your team when possible to keep that pressure from getting you overwhelmed.

Sometimes, the right choice might be to not make a choice. Perhaps you have a long list of “must haves” that don’t fit your current budget. Your team can help you narrow down selections that are better to prioritize at the new build stage, while taking out things that won’t be difficult to do later on after you move in.

Set Deadlines for Your Decisions

Due to the nature of a new build timeline, there will be preset deadlines on many of the choices you have to make. Some need to be chosen when you’re signing your purchase agreement before you even step foot near the design studio selections. These major deadlines will be made known to you early. Even so, setting your own deadlines ahead of time and holding yourself to them can be another way to avoid feeling bogged down by the endless possibilities when the build-deadlines are approaching. You’ll also avoid feeling artificially rushed, as you know when the deadlines you’ve set are and can schedule the time to think over your options before then. Allow yourself time to ruminate on the choices you’ve made—including your backups—and finalize your selections when the time comes.

Making decisions in a timely manner based on deadlines will help your Design Studio consultant have your selections priced out for you and keep your home build on schedule.

Limit Your Options

Yes, you read that right. Choices are great, but too many can be paralyzing, lead to second-guessing, and give you that decision fatigue we want to avoid. Narrow down your options to around 2–3 for each selection. Your favorite should be your top pick, while any additional ones serve as your backups. This is why a vision board can be vital to keeping you safe from the clutches of decision fatigue. We suggest fully taking advantage of your preview appointment and carefully viewing selections online before your eventual appointment with a consultant.

Make the Process Fun

Remember—you’re designing your future home. This is somewhere you’ll be living for at least a part of your life. It’s supposed to feel exciting to take this step, whether it’s your first home with all the bells and whistles or your first home as an empty-nester. At times when you’re feeling overwhelmed, take small breaks to reset your mind and stay positive by thinking about how much you’ll love your beautiful, new home. Your team is also there for you and can help you when you do feel overwhelmed or unsure.

One Final Note

At the end of the day, some of the best advice when making so many decisions for your home is to simply go with your gut and stick with it. Most clients who change their minds always end up going back to their initial choice later on. Once you second-guess yourself, you risk becoming overwhelmed, not only from the choices you haven’t made yet, but also the ones you’ve already made! It can also extend your build time, lead to missing out on availability, and eat up your time by slowing down the rest of the selections process. Sometimes, you really do just know.