bored in the sims, what do I do?

@randomizedsimmer  It's hard for me to say because I don't know how you usually play. I think it's just really easy to get into a rut where you do the same old favorite thing you do in the Sims until you get tired of it. Do something "out of character" from what you usually do, so something you haven't tried, or try to recreate something you love from outside the Sims.

• If you usually play sweet wholesome families, try either the Black Widow challenge or a dysfunctional family where the teens run away and have to support themselves (and maybe a younger sibling?)
• If you usually play YAs crushing their careers, try Rags to Riches or a (sweet and wholesome? deeply dysfunctional?) family.
• Try a different family structure. Like, a young adult and their teen sibling, or Grandparents and grandchildren (teen and child), etc. I have a save with a young adult and an elder, her aunt, and I really enjoy their relationship. (And yes, I went into CAS and said, "Create Phoebe's mother... okay, create the mother's sister... okay, delete the mother, we're working on the aunt...") If you only play heterosexual couples, try a gay couple or a single parent (oops baby? widow/widower? unflirty and adopted a child?)
• If you usually spend all your time making all your Sims and children perfect perfect perfect, download Bienchen's whim overhaul and maybe MissyHissy's personality mod and try to play whims-based as much as possible.
• If you usually play one household, make them get married and have kids, play their kids and make them get married and have kids, play with their kids when they die... try to set up a rotation where you play multiple households for a week at a time and have them all interact with each other and play out a story that way.
• If you never leave your home lot, pick an aspiration like Master of Mischief or Serial Romantic and go out partying a lot.
• Play on a different lifespan than you usually do.  If you usually play normal, try long or short.
• Is there a career or an aspiration that you've never touched? give it a try. Always in Business or Culinary? Be an astronaut or a criminal!
• Do something intentionally wacky, like... form a household of a witch, a vampire, and a mermaid all with the kleptomaniac trait and have them all steal for a living. Put them in a haunted house and maybe make one or all of them paranormal investigators as well (who steal from the customers). (Note: Witches learn the medium skill faster and can Scruberoo away slime creatures, but Vampires don't get tired doing ceremonies...)
• Try playing with someone else's "gameplay rules." For example, this or this.
• Try some collecting and see if you like it?
• If you have a TV show or movie you love, try playing it in the Sims. You might even find the Sims on the gallery for this! I've played Leverage and What We Do in the Shadows this way.  😉
• I had a blast playing a "nomad" who didn't own a house, just a tent, and tried to have her live "on vacation."  I had a rule that she wasn't allowed to build a permanent structure on her home lot. I had outdoor retreat and jungle adventure which made that a lot easier, but since vacations are now base game you could try it. She worked as a freelancer to pay for it, because freelancers can work on vacation.
• Download someone else's save file. People have revised base game saves with new houses and townies and updated lore...

And of course, there are classic challenges that you might have already done, including the Legacy Challenge, the Hundred Baby challenge, the Seven Toddlers challenge, Black Widow... One of my favorite saves ever is my Super Sim challenge, which you've already said you don't want to do but I second @Idiosyncratic53 that I loved it.