Playing Large Households - Tips?

Change your resolution to a smaller size for your display screen within the game options.

I suggest this because I play mainly large households in all these games. In this game we are lucky we can take one to a community lot and leave them there. You can give them things to do while they are away out of your hair. Sometimes you just need a break from so many. On really hectic days take several to different places and leave them there. The game (since the last patch in May) sends them home on their home and you can't actually leave them there for hours anymore so it's good to get them out sometimes so you can deal with those at home.

Leave often with one you prefer to keep their social obligations up and to keep their friends. If you don't they will lose their friends and you will basically not know anyone else over time but the family.

Lock doors! To keep them out of each other's rooms and or out of rooms you want for a specific Sim to use the pc or tv or whatever. If you don't they all wind up hanging in somebody's bedroom or in a room where you wanted one Sim to use for their work or whatever.


Cook ahead! Make a Sim cook breakfast meals and at least two dinners ahead of time so they can feed themselves and get to work on time.

Skip the chores and make sure they are keeping up social and friendships. Promotions come eventually and if you stress about it, then large households become a grind.

Don't forget to set aside time for quite time and group outings together. It makes it less dull.

Hire a maid, and a repair guy. Replacing stuff is more expensive.

Have fun sometimes hectic is hilarious in these games.

Oh, one more do not have any bathroom access where Sims can go through one either side. They will do that all and use it as a path to get to other rooms (shortcut). It will only lead to bad moodlets and interruptions.

I agree with everything that @Cinebar said. Also try to keep your Sims on a schedule, particularly your child Sims. Try and get them to do their homework as soon as they come home, and I wouldn't worry about trying to get their child skills up either. Try and have them eat at the same time, around the same time each day and have them use the bathroom before sending them to bed. Again, try and stick to a schedule with bedtimes. I had 12 Sims in my Legacy household, and now I'm down to 7 and it seems so small. :D

15 sims and counting, god i love mods. i only control one of them (the mum) and let all the kids run pretty wild, i could never micromanage that many sims so i stick to just her.

@Cinebar Great tips!! Thanks so much.
Ahh...the resolution...got it!

@glorifica @MicemSims Thanks so much for the tips! I like the schedule idea. IRL I keep my kids on the schedule. Not sure why I didn't think about doing that in this game lol. Omg, 15 Sims...sounds challenging.

Retail and an active career don't mix well. I'd recommend following your doctor to work and not playing retail for a while -- the store will still be there when you come back to it.

If you want your children to do homework, put the TV in household inventory for a while. Playing chess is a good way to build logic and take care of fun and socialization needs.

Having enough bathrooms is important -- 1bathroom for 3 sims works pretty well.

And @glorifica has a good idea -- with that large a household, you might want to try a challenge where you only control one sim per day or something. TS4 sims are actually pretty good at taking care of their needs; the only thing you really need to worry about is making sure the babies are fed.

In my largest family I have 15 sims in my household as well - it is quite challenging, but I love playing large families.

These are my tips:
1) I have parents and teenagers that are working towards their cooking skill. It is good to have a couple of stoves and cook many meals at one go. If you fulfill the cooking aspiration you can cook meals that will never spoil. I have a stay at home mom and she places all the left overs that will expire soon on the table (buffet style) when the kids get home from school and calls everyone to a meal.

2) Form groups: this has made my made caring for sims in a large family so much easier! I form one group with the teenagers and another with the children. Having to click on each sim to get them do things is so tedious. I have my kids do their homework together and sometimes swim or anything else you can do in a group.

3) I will choose a sim to clean all the dishes which are generally strewn all over the house.

4) The pause button is your friend! I don't micromanage that much - I tend to let them go wild after they have taken care of their basic needs. Pausing allows me to que up actions for all my sims if I want to skill them up.

5) Both parents and teens rotate between repairing broken objects so everyone gains skills. In large houses things break often and it's nice to have another hand to fix things. This skill can be used in woodworking as well. I hope this was helpful, good luck on your large fam! :)

"Sha2520032003;889000" wrote:
I was curious how large of a household others Simmers play and if they have any tips for managing a large family. I usually don't play with greater than 4-5 Sims. However, my Sim just had triplets and I have 7 Sims in my house (2 YA's, 1 teen, 1 kid, 3 babies). One of my Sims has an active career and is a doctor. & I have a retail store. 2 of my Sims are leaders of clubs. This is my first time playing with such a large household and with all the activities I had before the triplets, it was manageable. But now...whew, I'm having a bit of trouble keeping my Sims productive plus managing the other things (i.e. active career, retail, clubs).
For those that play with large households, how do you play? Any tips?

Also, once the household increased to 7 Sims, I can barely see their pictures in the UI. It's like not enough space to have them all in a straight line and they're teeny tiny pics. Is there a way to enlarge this? I think it's a setting in options to change, but not sure which.

sounds like they are being very productive! :) Seriously i tried the whole big family as well and switched to only playing as a single sim at a time more fun for me and more personable! But i hope you can manage it and have fun with it!

Welcome @Sha2520032003 :) Another tip I have is if there are multiple Sims ageing up in the same day, for example your triplets, turn off free will in options, have the first Sim blow out the candles and immediately add them back on and do this for how many Sims there are, and once the last Sim has aged up add the candles back on and put it in the fridge. That way you don't have to bake so many cakes all of the time and the Sims won't grab a slice of cake if there are candles on it. :) And of course turn free will back on.

Put a stereo on while the kids do thier homework to fill thier fun need at the same time (this also works for adults with boring work tasks like filling out reports or programming). Also, I make clubs for the kids and have homework as an activity so when they come home from school I start a club gathering and they all do thier homework together, then afterwards they can socialise with thier friends.