Happened in my game today.

I can't say this has happened to me, but to this day I will open up sims 3 and find a new surprise. One time I had a maid get stuck in my house and he kept cooking and eating until he got fat.

The one time I hired a maid she came in and immediately helped herself to my sims' food!

She was fired immediately.

I did, however, notice the post man deliver mail, change into regular clothes, and just walk away a normal person. Surreal.

@polrbear I haven't had a maid in years but, from memory, they all ate when there. Some clean up after themselves, some not.

When I have a big overstuffed house, the game will generate two or sometimes even three maids to clean up the giant mess that my sims have made of their dwelling. Inevitably, one of the maids is useless, eating bread and jam (fine), dropping piles of clothes on the floor for no apparent reason (less fine, but manageable), and constantly chatting with and distracting another maid who's actually trying to work hard (very much not fine).

The funniest thing though is when the team doesn't finish before the work shift is over. Some stuff stays undone, but if there are any dirty plates on the table, they just disappear. Instantly. The maid disappears too, at precisely the same time, taking the paycheck and vanishing into thin air. I'm not sure why the plates get this special treatment, as any unmade beds stay that way and any piles of dirty laundry just keep stinking up the room, but at least my sims always have a clean kitchen.

There seem to be some minimum number of tasks to take care of that a mid-range performing maid (maybe not the total goof-offs) must take care of. If they just don't have time to get to them all on-screen before their shift is up, the remaining things will clean themselves up automatically as the maid leaves the lot. Dirty dishes fall into that category, from what I've observed so do obviously dirty (not just kind of dirty where you can't see it yet) sinks, bathtubs, showers, kitchen counters, and toilets -- it's really startling to hear all of the toilets in the house flush at the same time when this happens until you get used to it. Not sure, but also maybe piles of garbage on the floor or ground and maybe old newspapers to be discarded, puddles needing to be mopped up.

Beds being made, laundry tended to (which my maids almost never do very completely), leaves being raked, I think maybe stuff like books and toys being put away need to happen on time and through animations or they aren't going to get done at all.

It's not just the maid. Now the repair man and the mailman is doing it.

I’ve never actually hired a maid in my game - yeah, you can tell I don’t trust them very much. But I’ve had Sims who have a pool, and the mailman or paper boy/girl shows up to their house, delivers their mail or newspaper, then changes right into their swimwear… then they immediately change back into their uniforms and move off.

"TinySpaceFox;c-16425262" wrote:
I’ve never actually hired a maid in my game - yeah, you can tell I don’t trust them very much. But I’ve had Sims who have a pool, and the mailman or paper boy/girl shows up to their house, delivers their mail or newspaper, then changes right into their swimwear… then they immediately change back into their uniforms and move off.

Spoiler

"kimieswildroses;c-16424750" wrote:
Now the repair man and the mailman is doing it.

And I totally misinterpreted that. :tongue:

Maybe i should have said, and now the mailman and repair man are changing clothes before they leave not just the maid? :D

"polrbear;c-16423379" wrote:
The one time I hired a maid she came in and immediately helped herself to my sims' food!

She was fired immediately.

I did, however, notice the post man deliver mail, change into regular clothes, and just walk away a normal person. Surreal.

Do you have a swimming pool? Pools have a really strong desire connected with them. On all my lots with swimming pools the service sims, both adults and kids, do their regular job (deliver mail or paper) then change into swimwear and head for the pool. Halfway through getting to the pool the game automatically cancels the desire fulfillment action, they switch from swimwear to everyday clothes and run off the lot.

If I have a juice keg (from University) on my lot, the adults will head for it and pour themselves a cup of juice, but they don't drink it because the game's built-in cancel command takes over and the service sims run off the lot.

All the above happen 100% of the time on all my lots with swimming pools and/or juice kegs.

After having a Butler for a while, they always seem to eventually begin to change into normal clothes to perform their jobs. Haven't had the maid, or mailman, but the Butler... Yep.