keep/leave options open

I was watching Ellen Degeneres show when she was talking about a contest on who would be her new gardener. She showed a picture of a new guy who was interested in taking the job, but she said she needed more people sending pictures in because she was keeping her options open. But wait, keep options open? What does that mean?

When you keep or leave your options open, you wait before making a choice. So despite having a picture of a guy who was willing to take the job as her new gardener, she wanted to have more options for that position. So after waiting for people to send their pictures in for a few days, she will finally make her choice on who's going to be her new gardener. But for now, she needs to leave her options open. Take a look at one more example: I want to keep my options open, so I didn't sign the contract yet. I hope that helps. Take care!