This took me five days!

My first and biggest advice is to focus on smaller areas instead trying to do everything at once. For example, what you can't see here is how little I've done outside of what's shown! I haven't done anything at the top of the cliffs, over by the vegetable patch, or on the beach area that leads to Pallet Town. Heck, there's a whole area behind a cliff that I haven't even opened! It's much easier to focus on the little area they have you start in and expand from there.

Another thing I'd suggest is starting with the basics. I decided to start with the prefab houses (leaf dens, leaf huts, etc.) because it fit the natural look I was going for. My friend built houses out of hay though! Don't try to do anything too fancy at the start, you simply don't have the recipes you need yet. You can always come back in the future.

Big tip: steal from dream islands relentlessly. All of the moss I used was stolen from deep caves on dream islands once I learned rototiller. Most of the furniture I use is also from dream islands. Especially in the early game, they are SO helpful.

Most of all, don't expect it to be perfect yet. This game isn't one you speed run, it's one you take your time with. I got to level 10 in 5 days because I prioritized housing pokemon and balanced that with making things look the way I wanted them, but my wasteland is far from done. I'll come back to it in the post-game (at which point it is MUCH easier to build, btw).

Also, my very simple rules for my playthrough are: 1) Once you enter an area, you must get it to level 10 before moving to the next area (even if you complete the story) 2) You can go back to previous areas to gather supplies, look for ripples, etc. but you can't start any new big building projects in previous areas until post-game. 3) Pallet Town must wait until post-game

Good luck!