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    Is there a way to stop your sims from cleaning up after themselves immediately?

    agustdagustd Posts: 946 Member
    edited September 2017 in The Sims 4 General Discussion
    I've found that washing dishes in a household of more than 3 sims is a nightmare and can ruin the entire day.

    If you have your family eat dinner together chances are they'll finish eating at the same time. Then they will all get up with their one empty plate to wash it. All 7 of my sims get up and look for a sink at the same time which as you can probably imagine, results in a disaster. There is no way for me to stop this. When a family eats together it's usually just one person who takes up the dish washing duty after the meal! But in the sims, unless you quickly cancel out the interaction for EVERY sim, they'll all want to wash that single dish of theirs. If there aren't enough sinks in the house they'll just drop the plate on the floor and wave to you, and if there are, it's even worse as they'll all wander away in separate directions and waste time, sometimes hours of the day. This is beyond aggravating. Is there a way to stop your sims from cleaning up after themselves right after they're done eating?
    Post edited by agustd on

    Comments

    • vancanuckfan86vancanuckfan86 Posts: 1,156 Member
      I have the same problem so I usually just cancel the cleaning interaction by clicking on it. Then I have one Sim clean all the dishes. Usually one of the kids - I mean, why else would I have kids >:)
    • megiaremegiare Posts: 421 Member
      I pick a designated cleaner for the household and will always cancel the non-cleaners cleaning actions. The non-cleaners will develop the trait/habit of not picking up after themselves after a little while.
      aD9wyNW.jpg
    • GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,552 Member
      I have a tendency to play large households. I've yet to run into this problem. Generally, it's one, maybe two of the child Sims, or the Mom, who cleans up after the rest. Sometimes, I have to direct a Sim to do so. Usually, it's one who needs to earn more points on a Value, so I select carefully.

      Were they all to get up at the same time to wash their one dish that would create havoc! I empathize will you who are having this happen. :open_mouth:
      You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
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    • JimG72JimG72 Posts: 1,161 Member
      Mine usually don't finish up at the same time....due to conversations. I'd kind of rather they all finish up at the same. Instead, what I get is one or two finish and then they are going to the dishwasher and the sink....and then another one finishes up and wants to clean their plate, etc. If I do have several that finish up at the same time, I just pause the game and either cancel out the queue for all but one of them or I just drag the plates into the garbage can.
    • agustdagustd Posts: 946 Member
      megiare wrote: »
      I pick a designated cleaner for the household and will always cancel the non-cleaners cleaning actions. The non-cleaners will develop the trait/habit of not picking up after themselves after a little while.

      Maybe my game is glitched but I've been doing this for a long time and I have yet to see any effect :( It's frustrating having to monitor everyone at the table instead of just enjoying the beautiful animations of them talking to each other. And I really dislike manually dragging the plates to the sink/ bin, since house chores is something I actually like in my game so I always want at least one person to do the dish washing.

      Seems like dishes in general do nothing but cause issues lately.
    • IceyJIceyJ Posts: 4,641 Member
      Give them the Slob trait.
    • MammaMiaMammaMia Posts: 14 New Member
      The thing I love most about sims is their ability to learn. If you don't want them do do dishes, Don't let them. Cancel it. Make sure they will never even consider cleaning again. Pick one who will always clean. (I usually pick children because then they will be the "cleaner" their whole lives and you won't need to change a thing) Soon, they'll get used to picking up after everyone. The sim I usually play as and focus on, Gwendolen, is too busy for cleaning. She sleeps, eats, play video games, programs, Does her bathroom routine, eats, and sleeps. Her little sister, Quinn, does all the work. She does the dishes, she trims the bonsai, she takes out the trash, she cleans when things get gross, and she repairs things when they break. I don;t even tell her anymore. This is especially helpful for game-driven SimLit where you focus on one sim.
    • FirandeFirande Posts: 816 Member
      My Sim always washes dishes autonomously - even when there's literally zero dishes around. It feels more like a bug than actual intended gameplay to me, honestly. Whenever he has nothing to do for even a second, he starts washing dishes. When he visited Vlad's superclean manor to ask him to turn him into a vamp, the first thing he did when he was invited in was to wash non-existing dishes. He does have the polite trait from Parenthood, but if politeness means conjuring up nonexisting dishes to wash 24/7 at any residence/community lot he goes to, then I've been doing it all wrong for my entire life. :lol:
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    • megiaremegiare Posts: 421 Member
      agustd wrote: »
      megiare wrote: »
      I pick a designated cleaner for the household and will always cancel the non-cleaners cleaning actions. The non-cleaners will develop the trait/habit of not picking up after themselves after a little while.

      Maybe my game is glitched but I've been doing this for a long time and I have yet to see any effect :( It's frustrating having to monitor everyone at the table instead of just enjoying the beautiful animations of them talking to each other. And I really dislike manually dragging the plates to the sink/ bin, since house chores is something I actually like in my game so I always want at least one person to do the dish washing.

      Seems like dishes in general do nothing but cause issues lately.

      It's so funny how one thing will work for one simmer but not another. Maybe it's just my sims autonomy personality and it has nothing to do with me trying to influence their behavior patterns. :/
      aD9wyNW.jpg
    • berrybelleberrybelle Posts: 9 New Member
      i have pretty much the opposite problem. one of my sims has developed that 'habit' of cleaning up after everyone, and i dont know why!

      the second there's any dishes in the house, even if it's on an entirely seperate floor to him, he'll make it his mission to go clean up. he's not neat or anything, infact, i think one of my sims *IS* neat and never really cleans up. he's not a caretaker or anything either. i can only assume i accidentally directed him to clean up a lot early on and now he thinks it's his duty in life...
    • EmmaVaneEmmaVane Posts: 7,847 Member
      Queue up something (something un-multitaskable) after eating. They won't wash up if they are queued to do something else (unless they have the Good Manners trait).

      Autonomous plate washing is an idle action (or related to Good Manners/Neat traits).
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    • SageRainWillowSageRainWillow Posts: 2,221 Member
      I hate this too. Someone needs to come out with a mod, "NO Dishwashing". At least then we could decide who is the DD (Designated Dishwasher) that evening. Can't be that hard, it would be half the Slob trait without any of the other behaviors that go along with it.
      42959178421_482f6f6a5c_o.png

    • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      This has always bugged me in all the games. Only neat Sims should auto clean up. No one should have to turn a Sim into a slob and the neater Sim should do all the work unless we direct others to go around looking for plates. I remember in TS2 this is the way it used to be but they changed it, and all Sims started picking up after themselves (because some wanted that) so that's the way it's been ever since.
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
    • Livin in SimLivin in Sim Posts: 1,145 Member
      I do think it got worse with Parenthood. It's a toss up whether the Patch before did it, or the Pack. But I seemed to notice it more after I got the Pack, which was a while after the Patch. That could be why some are afflicted worse than others?

      I can vouch for the Training Theory, tho. Not for dishes exactly, but I'll have to try it. But I have a great habit of canceling my Sims' washing their hands, if they are going to shower right after using the toilet. These go together about once a day. Now, however, they aren't washing their hands when I want them to. :# I used to be able to set something in the queue, for instance the showering, and unless I canceled it, they would still wash their hands after toilet, except if they were Slobs. Now, even when I leave the queue free, they don't. Ick--what have I done! :|
    • GmanSim123GmanSim123 Posts: 13 New Member
      I have the opposite problem



      My sim never cleans up his dishes and its annoying me because hes leaving the place messy.
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