Darn it, it takes TIME to set up a full world!!

Yep. The decisions and time that go into just one family are quite enough for me to deal with (when starting a new project) let alone a whole neighbourhood/world. Good luck and enjoy!

It does take a long time. I have a game save template that I have been working on for nearly a year now. I have changed out every single lot, although many of them are still the same but been upgraded with things such as skylights, and other stuff for the different packs that have been added to the game, as well as every single sim (still working on that one) with their summer and winter outfits.

Actually i misspoke. I have not even replaced every lot, I have replaced community lots, filled empty lots. So a lot of base game residentials are still "intact" except for adding three lot traits to all lots. The idea, obviously, is for me to use this as my future base game, not just for this one.

Edit: I now also have a separate save where I am filling the empty lots, and mess around a bit. Most glaringly: I split Don and the Calientes up; he lives with mama Caliente, and their twin toddlers, while each sister also has a child with him but has moved out (one in Windenburg, one in San Mushyno (I can never spell that)) where they live alone with their daughters.

I have 4 or 5 save game templates, mostly I have just edited the premades a bit and filled empty lots and Newcrest. Oh, and some editing of the existing lots.

It took a while, but I did it over time while playing the game normally.

I kicked out all the premades and even deleted some (oh my) I downloaded some homeless from my gallery. I have MCCC but have it set so no homeless are housed at the moment. I am surprised at a couple of the homeless, a single child (yep you read that right) a few single teenagers. I have not done anything to the actual world but might give it a try. First time I have done a clean game with no premades. I usually leave the premades alone to marry / divorce have a affairs according to how MCCC plays them.

I'm doing this but gradually, so all premade characters and houses were deleted, and 90% of the communal lots . So far I have built 2 homes and one bar from scratch with more to follow as the played households expand. Over time I want descendants of my founder sim to fill the world. Game generated sims are living in the apartments but I'm sure that may change eventually. My founder's kids are still teens though so it will be a little while before they start building their own homes.

Takes time, but sounds like fun :) I do this for parts of some new worlds, but mostly forget to adjust community lots.

I used to be someone who started new saves. A lot. When I got to 15 saves, I stopped and started new sims out in one of the existing saves. I have recently decided to start out with a save in which I deleted most of the premades, edited game lots and added lots of my own. I am now in the process of moving households I like (as townies) or still want to play from other saves into this new save and deleting saves, basically consolidating saves. The good thing is they are all skilled and have careers. I am now down to 11 saves, but am still working on this. Just like OP, I feel this is a lot of work and a bit exhausting at times. I am not quite sure why I am doing it - perhaps to end up with a save with a very small number of weirdly dressed, pear-shaped single townies with adopted children?

Wow, I really mentioned save/saves a lot in this post!

It’s a grind. I can’t do it all at once.

First time I attempted to do this I deleted every lot with the intent of making every build an original and replacing every premade with my own sims. This got overwhelming pretty quickly, particularly coming up with build designs, so I've settled for renovating or editing lots, although a few are originals. I still have quite a bit to do though, I'm nowhere close to finishing. One thing I wanted to avoid was having duplicates or similar lots. There are currently too many gyms, too many bars, museums, etc so I'm trying to come up with unique community lots for each world. I've invested in so many packs and I find I rarely visit some of the worlds so thought this might be a good way to get a good use out of them.