How Many Households?

My playstyle is a single household with aging off for most of the time, then switch to my favorite premades just to ensure they develop as I want and don't "die out". When I am emotionally ready, I turn aging on and have my household having kids then pause aging again when the kids are YA.

I even go so far as to abandon the elders, either by moving out, or kicking them out if i like the present house. I really dislike juggling more than three sims in a household.

Even in Sims 2 I just played 1 household per save. I've tried playing rotationally, but it bores me.

I left it between 6-10 families per save.
I tend to rotate between families, and leave the aging off, unless I have multiple families and expecting babies, I will put aging on. With the babies I just change their names, and fit them how I want, and then turn aging off again.
The reason I have so many families is to keep my interest. Not every family of mine follows the traditional family, and it allows me to do different things. Plus, I like seeing my families interact with each other when I am not playing them at the moment. Also, having families makes my worlds feel more lived in.
I have at least 5-6 save files, two of them are currently dedicated to series I like, which I am starting a Harry Potter one and already have a Frozen one. Those save files have canon, semi-canon, AU, and a few genderbends all in the same world. They also have at least one family that isn't related to the series.
I have two save files that are a mixture of Sims I create that aren't related to anything, and others I download or create that are based on a series like Lord of the Rings. So, normal Sims interacting with fandom Sims.
My final save file is dedicated to families I created in Sims 2, and making a version of them in the Sims 4.
Also, making different families is really fun, because I like being in the same world, but want to play a different family that day.

I have one played household in every residential world (including small worlds like Magnolia Promenade)

Currently I have 47 households in the played part and of them 47 so far I have played 33 of them in rotation. In my unplayed households there are 13 households I have previously used in rotation and then moved to unplayed for the sims to die off naturally or if I have no interest anymore in the household.

I start with one family and then eventually choose one child whose life I'll continue playing afterwards. Then the cycle goes on and on. The child I choose is usually the youngest (since I generally end up doing a decent amount of gameplay with the oldest already beforehand).

I have 26 households and I have started with one family a new save, but I decided that I need at least 3 more families for the future generatiosn. I wasn't happy with the families I had already in the game, they didn't fit in this save and I have deleted most of them. Now the childrens are spread all over the sims world. I have marked some households as unplayed for mccc, and because I don't want them to be culled out.

"elelunicy;c-17800524" wrote:
I have one played household in every residential world (including small worlds like Magnolia Promenade)

That's what my game was, before I started my current game.

Depends on the save of course and what I'm doing, but my legacy save I started with one and now I rotate between all of the aunts and uncles, cousins... 7 generations down and I have 38 families and growing. :o

"elanorbreton;c-17800268" wrote:
@HopeyStarr how do you fit that many households in one save? Surely there are not enough lots?

Interesting to see that more people play with multiple households than just one. Well, so far at least...

You know what? I made a mistake. Instead I took the sim count of my played households, which counts each individual sim.

The number of played households is actually 123. Even then I still have trouble finding places for sims to live. When I decide that I want a sim to move out, instead of finding a place on their own most of the time I have them move in with friends somewhere or live on "community lots" with other small families because my save is just so jam-packed.

Also, a few of them are played but currently not-in-world. For example, I'll have a sim's sister be visiting and move her into the family, but after her visit I'll place her in her own household that's not in the world to be played at a later date.