I usually ignore or delete townies unless they're useful to my gameplay or I see them constantly walking by my Sims house in crazy get-ups. It's distracting, especially when they walk by in one ridiculous outfit, disappear and then reappear in yet another outlandish outfit within a span of seconds.
Those that have roles, such as barista, mail carrier, gardener, etc. and are halfway decent to look at (no weird bodystyles, such as the wide hip, tiny shoulders syndrome) get a make-over, their file name changed to reflect their job and saved to my favorites in households and added to my custom template save that I use to start every save game. I've had the same mail carrier for years this way and she's been a friend to many of my played Sims. :)
