Gaming can be the perfect escape from the real world. Unless the thing you’re trying to escape is a big pile of dirty dishes.
The Sims 4’s main idea is to allow you to ‘play with life’. Sadly, that life includes cleaning – a lot of it.
It’s easy to miss the odd dish or pile of detritus here and there when you’re trying to make the perfect home. While you might not notice that, your Sims certainly will, and boy, will they make it your problem if they get a negative Moodlet about it.
So, here are a few things to keep in mind to help keep your Sim’s homes spotless and your Sims happy.
How to clean up dishes, spoiled food, and piles of trash
Doing the dishes and taking out the trash are two of the oldest gameplay mechanics from The Sims franchise. Cleaning even used to be its own skill, back in the day. Despite feeling like a never-ending task throughout the years, thankfully it’s gotten so much easier to keep on top of cleaning throughout each generation.
Cleaning up dishes and garbage piles in The Sims 4 is really easy. You have two main options. Either you can drag plates and debris to the nearest bin, sink, or dishwasher yourself, or you can set your Sims away to do it. To give your Sims some chores, all you need to do is interact with the trash or plates and ask them to clean them up.
If you’re lucky, your Sim will then wander around the lot until they’ve found everything in need of clearing up. This might take a while, though, so consider hitting that fast-forward button or taking a quick screen break at this point.
How to take the trash out
Bins starting to overflow and get kind of gross? You know what that means – you’re the lucky soul who gets to take them out.
First things first: make sure you have some kind of outdoor bin placed in your Sim’s garden, or find their trash chute if you live in an apartment building. If you don’t have one, head into Build/Buy Mode and get one. Then, interact with the offending indoor bin and ask your Sim to take the trash out.
Done. Easy. And you hardly had to do anything.
You can turn cleaning into the ultimate money-maker
Got a few Simoleons to spare? 1,000 of them, specifically? Try grabbing the NanoCan Touchless Trash Can, or a custom reskin of it. This gives you 10 Simoleons every time you throw away an item, per household member. It’s basically free money.
There are two catches, though. The first is obvious – that’s a steep price. It’ll take you a while to earn that grand back. Unless you live in a big household, of course, which will both generate more waste and boost your income from the bin.
The other catch is obvious once you’ve tried using the item. There’s a short buffering window that stops you from adding any more items to the bin for a few seconds after you’ve used it. This isn’t a huge deal, but it can become annoying if you’re using the ‘drag everything to the bin yourself’ method.
It definitely has its fair share of merits to balance it out, though. Besides the money, you also never need to worry about taking the trash out ever again. Man, I’d pay money for that myself.
How to dust in The Sims 4
Own Bust the Dust? You’re going to be in for… Some dust. A lot of dust. So much dust.
If you start seeing big piles of grey stuff hanging around your house, then it’s time to grab a hoover. You can get a few different kinds, including upright vacuums and handheld devices, from the Appliances section of Buy Mode.
Once you’ve placed that in your Sims home, you can interact with them in Live Mode to clean up shop. I would recommend you try sticking the item directly in your Sim’s inventory, and then send them around the problematic areas to clean up.
To hoover any given area of your Sim’s home, select a Sim with a vacuum in their inventory and click on the floor in the area you want to clean up. You do this just like you’re getting them to walk somewhere. Then, you can use the Vacuum Here or Vacuum Around interaction.
Also, make sure you empty your vacuum when you’re finished. Much like everything in The Sims, it can be a fire hazard if you don’t.
Got Cats & Dogs installed? You can even grab your own vacuum robo friend who’ll do all the cleaning for you. The Robot Vacuums are also in the Appliances section.
How to check the dust level
With the dust system switched on, your Sim’s home will naturally accrue dust. It sounds simple, but the only way of knowing just how dusty your Sim’s house has become is by paying attention to its dust level.
How many times have I said dust?
To check a room’s dust level, you just need to click on the floor and select Check Dust Level. A pop-up will then tell you everything you need to know.
How to do laundry and clean up clothes
Besides Bust the Dust, there’s another cleaning-themed Pack for The Sims 4: Laundry Day Stuff.
This is exactly what it sounds like. It comes with a bunch of Build/Buy Mode items, like washers, dryers, clotheslines, and even a washtub, along with a full laundry mechanic.
If you have the pack installed, and a couple functional laundry hampers hanging around your home, then you’ll quickly notice piles of dirty clothes accruing around all kinds of corners of your home. To organise them, you just need to drag them to your laundry hampers in the same way you would drag trash to a can.
When you’re ready to wash your Sim’s clothes, select a washing machine or laundry hamper and get your Sim to load it up for you. All you can do now is wait.
Once your waiting time is over, your clothes need to dry. That’s really easy – just load up your tumbledryer by interacting with it the same as you did the washer. Again, you’re going to have to wait for it to finish the cycle.
Okay, that was a lot of waiting, but you’re almost there. Interact with the dryer to unload your clothes, and you’ll be left with a nice pile of clean, dry laundry. You can either drag this to wherever you store your clothes (like a closet, drawers, or clothes rail) or you can set your Sim away to put them away manually.
Feel like keeping it all a little more analogue? You can always try out the wash tub and clothes line approach. Can’t say I’d recommend it, though, unless you’re literally living Off-the-Grid.
You can also always just… Get someone else to clean for you
All sound like a bit much? I would agree. It’s time to get someone else to do your literal dirty work for you.
You can get all kinds of Sims to help out around your home, depending on which DLC you have installed and how much cash you have to spare. Some options include:
- Maids
- Butlers
- Servos
- Bonehilda
Or, if your Sim isn’t afraid of bossing others around, you can use the Ask to Clean interaction. You might see this come up when you click on the floor anywhere in your home. Use the interaction, then select the poor soul you’re going to make clean up on your behalf.
One last-ditch option is to make the most of Get Together and form a cleaning club to keep on top of things around your home. All you need to do here is to form a club, add some Sims, and set the activities to be anything you want done around the house.
Now that you’re all set up, you can start a club gathering and watch everyone else clean your home.
If only life could be so easy…
