I’ve heard people say “The Sims 1 is hard!” They’re not wrong! Unlike the “dollhouse” like playstyle of the Sims 4 today, back then, The Sims 1 was more of a life simulator game and took planning and strategy to take care of your sims. If you just jumped into this game and built yourself a huge room right off the bat, then of course your sims won’t fare so well! Let’s take a deep dive into this game and learn what it takes to keep your sims alive and happy.
Build your home to match the number of sims in your household. Don't build too big. Keep your sims' motives in mind.
Build your house close to the street.
Your sims have only so much energy every day. To help preserve it, make sure they can go from room to room in the fewest steps possible.
Make sure your stairs to the second floor are near the front door.
Make sure the kitchen is an easily accessible room from the front door (or side/back door). In case there is a fire, make sure the fireman can get to the fire as quickly as possible! Plan ahead.
When making a room bigger or smaller, first take the time to delete the wall paper on both sides, then the flooring, then delete the bare walls. You get some money back that way.
Always buy a phone and a fire alarm. Be sure to get a burglar alarm for each room as well. This may seem weird, but the best place to put a burglar alarm is at the end of the sidewalks, near where sims spawn on your lot. Just put a wall there and a burglar alarm.
Kitchen
Design your kitchen in an "assembly line" way.
First, start with the fridge. Next to that, put a blank counter. Next, put a food processor, next a microwave, then a stove, and finally a sink. After that, you can put a dishwasher and a trash compactor.
Surfaces do matter in meal prep! Don’t let your sims prepare their food on top of the dishwasher or trash compactor. Those items only add 5 points to the hunger bar, which are the lowest points added. Maybe you could put a decoration on those to prevent sims from using them as a meal prep surface.
Bathroom
If you're building for 8 sims, make sure you have at least 4 bathroom stalls, and 4 showers/tubs all in their own little 2x2 rooms within the bathroom. Then sims wanting to take a shower/bath won't be shoo'ing out sims who need to use the toilet. (Although if you like that chaos, have at it!)
