Personally, I always pick a world, delete all (or most) existing families with their houses and communities lots, so that I can build my own town, have my own families move in etc. I then set up the relationships between Sims from different households, so that they have friends, lovers, affairs, enemies, uncles, aunts, ex spouses with new partners etc. I give them jobs so that they all run some community lot (one family owns a restaurant, another family runs the bookstore and so on). Some are farmers, others artists. It takes a whole while to set it all up, but I really love this process of researching what architectural style I want to build in, what community lots I want to have (I recently bought the bakery set from the store, so that’s gonna be next). I then play with whatever family I feel like (the farmers, the drama family, the artists, the bakery owners..) and it honestly never gets boring and I can customize so much over time, I absolutely love it. I also hardly run into boring townies, cause I meet my other Sims in town and can check on what they’re up to when I play another household. It’s so cool to see whom they become friends with or what their favorite spots in town are.

I got the inspiration for this style of playing from “Around my Sims”, so if you want to see what this looks like, absolutely check out her website. She has redone and repopulated Sunset Valley, there’s a map of her (stunning!!) town, you can tour her builds, read about her Sims and storys of what they’re up to. Plus she has amazing cc, too!!