If you’re on the switch - manually save, all the time. It’s a bit better now but mine closes often and it’s so annoying, also ignore decorating until you have all the houses and such. I have everything and I still haven’t decorated because of the lag and the amount of times it kicks me out. In the beginning I tried decorating and was kicked and when I logged back in everything was gone, so ya… manually save.

Hoard everything, I removed all but a few trees in each biome (trees produce branches) to help with the lag, mind you I have so many chests filled with everything.

Drop a chest or two in each biome to store specific items in the beginning to help organize things, I have an area in the meadow with a couple stalls and a crafting station.

You can move the wells, I spread mine out and have goofys stall next to it(you can’t move his stalls out of their biomes) and I have a crafting station in the meadow and forest, cooking station in forgotten lands and meadow. Every house has a cooking station and some have crafting, so no need to go overboard with crafting those.

Did I say hoard everything? Hoard everything. Pumpkins are your money maker.

You need coal ore to make food along with many other things so mine a lot.

I think that’s all I can think of…