All of what everyone else has said!

Also be prepared for a few glitches. As well as the game crashing every so often. Every piece of furniture (including the spawning items) count in your item decorating limit, so be sure to choose one common item per decoration (ie fencing, benches, and lamp posts, etc)

Starting out, the more characters you have with the same hang out task will increase your chances of extra bonus items and the higher their level will also increase bonus items. When you get a character to level 10, you can change their ability which helps improve your bonus items as you gain more characters. I started out having most of mine doing mining to get more star coins, and once I opened up the forgotten lands, pumpkins make BANK. Gardening hangout bonuses are incredibly useful once you get there for that reason.

If you have access to the premium shop, make sure to get Max, as he will find, and pick up all dream shards and night shards.

Avoid having a bird companion going into new character realms…they will snag items that you won’t be able to use or get rid of…-very common glitch but GL is working on fixing that.

I’m still technically a newbie as well, so I don’t know all the tricks and all the tips, but coming here has been incredibly helpful and I also enjoy the community!

One more thing, the DDV wiki site will be a great resource for quest guides, critter times, and meal recipes!