Look into local community centers or a community college for classes offered. Scroll through and see what catches your interest.
Reconnect with friends/ neighbors you haven’t seen for awhile. Host a get together.
Take your camera and plan a walking excursion (in nature, in a city, by the water - whatever) twice a week. Collect the best pictures and make a photo album (or online book) of the “best of the best” once a year.
Crossword puzzles - we do the New York Times crossword puzzles every day and sometimes more challenging ones from other sources.
I also think that getting in the habit of regular exercise is a great hobby.
Would evening or weekend volunteering work for you? So many kids need mentoring!
ditto surfing
Download Pokemon Go app and join the rest of the world!
The results of drawing take up less space than paintings. I have taken up self studying math recently (using the Art of Problem Solving books). Also taking some online MOOC courses. I also have gotten pretty into water aerobics classes at the local public pool. It does make something, but I took a glass fusion class recently that was a blast – but it would be a hard hobby to pursue in depth without a studio I guess (but I LOVED it).
I like volunteering when I have time-you said you like the ocean, is there an oceanological institute close by that you could volunteer at? Do something doyenne-like or with kids’ groups?
You can go back to college-it’s free for seniors in a lot of states. I’m back in school full time at 46 and boy, you don’t realize how ossified your brain gets until you have to re-learn spanish all over again! I’m now fully un-ossified, brainwise 
and loving classes (getting my bachelors degree is a life goal that I am working on).
Most of my activities involve being social, creative, and organizing stuff. I think figure out what your needs are and what your strengths are, and just go looking. I like volunteering at the library, as well, and I’ve been asked to teach a couple of art classes (but I don’t feel good enough yet so I said no).
We’ll be empty nesters in two years, so we’re already looking at transitioning into that lifestyle. H at this moment is persusing zillow, looking at beach condos on his day off from work. I keep saying “I’d have to remodel that one, I’d have to remodel that one”. His idea of turn key is a lot different than mine. For him right now looking at Zillow is his hobby. He works a ton and doesn’t have a lot of time for more involved pursuits.
My ultimate hobby would be to design and build a house, but that would be H’s ultimate form of torture (aka spending money), so I am content (mostly) to sketch out the dream houses and let them live on paper.
I can’t do hobbies in a vacuum-I need the connection with other people-like if I did photography (I do), I’d have to take a class where we can critique each other’s work and learn from each other (I am).
"But I also must say to anyone who is NOT empty nest yet…don’t wait for this moment! Start shaping YOUR world before you find yourself alone. " THIS
I think our kids only benefit from seeing that we actually have interests outside of their world. No one is so busy that they can’t carve out a little time here and there.
Photography is actually a good idea-you do NOT need a big, bulky, expensive camera-even phone cameras are quite good, and one of our community colleges has a series of non-credit classes on how to take photos with them beyond point and shoot. Then you can learn about the software to manipulate the photos. D often uses her phone camera or a small point and shoot instead of her expensive DSLR.
A friend is hiking all 4,000 foot mountains in New England (I think that’s the height). Every weekend she is out there somewhere.
I do cake decorating-a hobby I’ve had since I was a kid. I do it for friends and family, and the cakes are of course consumable. It was something I made time for that also benefitted my kids. My sister cooks-loves trying new recipes. My boss makes jewelry and paints scenes from photos she’s taken. She’s gotton quite good and sells them at local craft fairs.
We have some amazing offerings at our community centers-each one has different kinds of classes, and then a whole other series for seniors. UW has free classes for seniors. The community colleges all have non-credit classes ranging from home repair to languages, to art to swing dance. If I lack a new hobby once D leaves next week (ACK ACK!!), it won’t be because there is nothing to do here. Where you live must have at least a few of these things.
I’ll second (or third) volunteering. I recently compiled a booklet of volunteer opportunities just in our zip code for my work, and there are dozens JUST that involve working with youth. Many organizations are desperate for volunteers, and especially if the kids are “at-risk” people shy away from getting involved, yet those are the kids that need positive adult involvement the most. These opportunities range form tutoring to teaching them how to cook or shop for healthy foods, to providing transportation to helping them with resumes, coding, and so much more. Every single school in our area needs daytime volunteers, for those with open hours during the day.
Have fun reinventing yourself!
Ah, hiking. I set out to hike in every state park in MN a couple years ago. It was a fun way to explore the state. I moved before I finished, but it was nice to have a little structure to my hobby.
I am inspired by this thread – wish I could just quit working and go do all this stuff.
You can do photography without investing in a lot of lenses. You probably already have one or two lenses. If you take pictures where there is enough light, you really don’t need expensive lenses to take excellent pictures.
If you like playing with computer applications, you can spend a lot of time post-processing with Photoshop or similar programs. You can learn to combine several shots to make HDR (high dynamic range) photos or you can learn to combine photos to make people disappear from crowded landmarks.
If you like to travel or hike, combining one of those activities with photography will keep you busy.
Ask yourself what you want to get out of your hobby. Do you want more social activities? Mental or educational stimulation? Exercise?
I have a variety of hobbies but my favorite, by far, is tennis. Tennis has the benefit of being both exercise and being social. Buying a racquet (and some cute tennis clothes) is not that expensive. You could start as I did at a city court, take a few lessons, and see how it goes. Now I’m a member of a tennis club that has lots of events, leagues, parties and other activities that combine socializing with exercise and I love it.
I recently read that learning a new skill is great for the brain, too.
And if you do want to try different lenses in your photography, you can rent them at reasonable rates. You don’t have to buy them.
I have too many hobbies, lol, as I posted in a thread three years ago! Still the case, probably worse. Agree with all the great suggestions here. Think about any things you used to like doing, or maybe thought about trying but never have.You need several things for different purposes.
Physical activities: H always wanted me to take up golf, so now we do that sometimes, although we haven’t had much chance this summer. Lots of “older” people play golf or tennis, swim, run, bike, hike, fitness classes, yoga, etc.
Mental activities: Learning a new language is supposed to be great exercise for the brain and help brain ward off issues associated with aging. I’ve been studying French for over three years now and have graduated to actually taking classes at the college. I have also taken up playing the piano again (you don’t have to be great if you are the only one who hears it!)
After hours activities: reading, genealogy, needlework (someday I still want to learn to needlepoint, but not before I retire), drawing, sewing, organizing photos or scrapbooking are all things you can do in odd moments or late at night when you can’t play golf or disturb others with your piano tinkering.
Around the house: cooking, gardening, home improvement/redecorating projects.
Other-oriented activities: Volunteering, or finding a cause that interests you to become involved in or support - even at the most periphery level. And there are clubs for pretty much everything, so join others if that suits you.
Travel: H and I have begun to travel a bit more now that the kids are out. There can be a lot of planning involved. Want to see all the state capitols? presidential libraries? state parks?
I agree with others, you should ‘shop around’ and see what interests you, since hobbies are supposed to be fun,not work necessarily. Check sites like pinterest to see what other people are doing, see what interests you. With some pursuits, there are clubs, so you can do it either solitary or with the group (bird watching, for example), so you can combine the social with the hobby (doesn’t always work, I love model trains, but I haven’t found a club yet that wasn’t filled with a group of people who turned a hobby into another workplace, with ‘bosses’, etc…yuck).
Then there is always learning about something you always wanted to, with the internet these days you can learn new languages (and talk to native speakers online), you can find on sites like corsera (spelling) course material online for a lot of topics, there are dvd’s from places like the Learning company/Great Courses (if you have any interest in music, I highly recommend Robert Greenburgs ‘how to listen to and understand great music’, the dvd’s are worth the price of admission, he is a lot of fun and it is a great, great survey of western music).
With photography, I was talking to my cousin’s wife recently, she is a well known professional photographer, and she said that these days you don’t need to buy a DSLR with all the lenses to do some outstanding photography, that you can get all in one cameras with zoom lenses built in that do a great job, and even with the DSLR’s some of them are really, really lightweight (she uses an Olympus for her work mostly, in part because getting into her early 60’s, the lighter weight is a blessing…and Olympus has an advantage if budget is a problem, they are a lot cheaper than Nikon or Canon in general:).
Nice part about the net is you can explore what others are doing and seeing if any of it interests you.
I bet when your grandmother embroidered and your grandfather painted it was not because they wanted their descendants to admire or display their work. It was because they enjoyed doing it. I know for me, and possibly a lot of people, it’s the process and not the product that is important. The doing, not the end result. So you can needlepoint a pillow and give it to the church auction. Make a tablerunner, use it once and pass it on the Goodwill. When someone admires something you made, you say, “here, it’s yours.” Or look into Project Linus or those pillowcase dresses for little girls who don’t get many new dresses.
My point, I guess, is don’t keep yourself from doing something you want to do because you don’t know what to do with the end result. Learning and perfecting a technique of any kind can be stimulating and relaxing.
And I second the suggestion to join a chorus if you like music. I sing in a women’s chorus and it’s absorbing and funny and communal and challenging.
If you want to start “slow”, if you have a good library system, check out different branch happenings - online or in house bulletin boards - ours has SO many options for short term things - presentations, computer classes, discussion groups, holiday themed get togethers, speakers, etc. - SOO many! The hardest part is walking in the the door for the first one- once you do it, you will be more comfortable seeking activities out.
I second the idea of joining a community chorus. My area has several with varying expectations of musical skill. They all put on well-attended concerts and the singers have a lot of fun.
I know a couple who got involved with the Red Cross before retiring, and got more involved after retiring. They are on call when emergencies happen – they show up in the middle of the night at fire locations with blankets, food, to transport people, etc, for example.
I love this thread. I agree with “shopping around” and for me that helped me ID a few hobbies. I have friends who do different activities and its fun to try things out with them. I’ve discovered yoga and walking, organizing (yes, going through my closets and cabinets), photography and decorating.
Words With Friends.
OP has a fulltime job, so I will resist the temptation of listing all my regular keep-busy activites, except - just today I was saying how nice it is that I have so much time that I can take 4 hours of a weekday to go donate platelets. (It’s almost 2 hours in the chair + setup, wind down and transportation)