Some of my sims have turned into elders and there will be more of them in the coming rounds. And some of them have to down size their homes.
So that's make me wonder: where do my fellow simmers let their elders live? In retirement homes? With their children and grand children? Special apartment complex? Micro houses? Permanent vacation in a sub hood? The grave yard?

(I'm most likely gonna move my single households into some kind of shared living space or "one-lot-micro-village" 'cause single households can be a little bit boring to play, regardless of age.)

They lived in the house where they started. I don't see any practical need to down-size because under the default rules the house has depreciated and has low bills. Having to fit into a new home would be a big shock to a person, and if the house is new, high bills for no benefit.

Apartments are no good for elders long-term because of the way graves misbehave on apartment lots.

Other than that, my elders just keep living their lives. Since sims don't need to sweep or dust, and sim elders don't have trouble with stairs, a big house is no more difficult for them to live in than a small one. And since sim elders don't accumulate mountains of medical debt and money is so easy to make, the bills aren't a problem for them. If I want to keep the house and the elder has children, having one of them move back in is the simplest way to handle it; if the sim doesn't have children, they can die and all their stuff will still be there when another sim buys it, but the cost is probably too high for a sim's first house, so I just have to think of what I want to have happen and look for the way to make that happen.

Since most of my sims have families the question doesn't arise often and can generally be settled in terms of character and story. For instance, when eccentric rock star Mary Munny died, I converted her house to a community lot and her grandson -- with a little help from her Fortune son -- bought it to run as a community music center. It was a gloriously weird house and Mary was a gloriously weird lady. That use was definitely in her will.

A retirement home is a fun thing to do with townies who age to elder alongside their playable friends, so that your town doesn't get topheavy with immortal elders. After a lifetime of being background characters, it's their time to shine! They can run businesses, do crafts, garden, spend all day playing mah jong, have spectacular romantic dramas, whatever they want!

I generally don't have a lot of elders in my game (mostly they just stay adults forever once they reach that age, and if they're story characters I usually have a copy of the sim for each age, in case I need them for something later - they rarely age up).

I did however do some personal touchups to this building for a few elder characters in my story, so that's where they (and their elderly neighbors) are currently residing. I've used the location for pictures, and otherwise consider it a perma-retreat. Another elderly-ish couple in the story is still living at home, though. Too spritely to move into assisted living as of yet

Most of the time the only Elders I play are the ones who live with one of their kids and can watch the grandkids. The others "move away", as in, they get moved to empty lots at the edge of the neighbourhood and get aged along with the rotations by using a cheat object (they still get invited over by their children, though)

I'm primarily a family player, so I prefer households that include multiple generations and "empty nest" households just don't hold much interest for me.

(Just to add because this tends to come up when Elder Sims are discussed on this forum; this is strictly about Sims, the virtual dolls in their virtual doll houses we play with. It does not make a statement about real people. )

I always used to let my sims stay in their homes, and have the kids move out. Sometimes one or more of the kids would stay at home and I'd have a multi-generational family, which was fun.

But for the hood I'm playing now, I decided that town regulations were- all elderly sims living on their own have to move to the old people's home. And, all kids move to their own place as soon as they age up. The empty houses are demolished, so I have no ancient homes in the hood. That way, I get to build more often, which is what I love to do!

Currently the old people's home is pretty full, the proprietor (an adult) lives with them, and is universally disliked by the inmates residents. She is often cheering on fights, or starting her own fights. There are also two pets in the home, both purchased by (now deceased) residents autonomously, when I was playing other families. Of course the wealth of each family is added to the estate's fund, so their is no shortage of equipment and luxury in the home, and residents can purchase whatever they like due to the massive communal bank account. They have bars, sporting and hobby equipment, TVs, stereos, instruments... some residents brought reward items with them and lots of personal photos and art. They have a butler, and a NPC canteen chef so food is always available, or they can cook their own. In the evenings they seem to gravitate toward the poker table. Latest additions are a Run with Scissors and a train set. We'll see how that goes! Most of them get on quite well and there have been a couple of romances. I have Christianlov's visitor manager on the lot, so I often set it up so that passers buy are automatically invited in. That way there are lots of visitors and lots of fun.

My elders remain part of my game until they die.

I have a special retirement hood (a shopping subhood) where most of them live. They have a community hall and a library, and quite a social life. They also take grandkids on vacations, invite the kids and grandkids over for dinner (or Sunday lunch) several times a week and spend a lot of time on their hobbies.

Oh, and there is a band. The old rock and rollers are still on fire, and when I get them together on a stage, they perform and the young sims love them.

The knowledge ones are handy in teaching skills to the younger ones, but the rest of them will also play chess or share hobby tips with the younger ones, and some of them are good in training the youth on the exercise equipment!

I think they add a lot of value to my hood, and when one of them die, the funeral is often a huge occasion, and, sometimes, the second wedding too

Did you run out of Elders who wanted to go out with a bang and burn down other people's houses while they were cooking? XD



There's a second wedding at the funeral? Now that's cold lol.

Normally, a bit later the same day, because they don't have that long too live. And here and there, some of them do fall in love at the funeral

Poor old Micklethwaite, his retirement ended too soon.

I still have the memories of his first day in the retirement home though.

First, they usually live in their old homes. Sometimes they still have children, when they age up, and there is no reason to move away. When children move out I make usually a guest room, a hobby room or a study room from childrens old room. I have made a nice house for a family, I would not like to gave it away. Sometimes children stays with parents or move back home after university but this is quite rare. It depends on sims personality and lifestyle. My elders does not retire soon after aging up. I like to fulwill career-oriented lifetime wishes and it is fun to try get a promotion. I think that elders are on their late 50s or 60s when they age up. There is still working years! (That is beacause adult days are very short even with a life elixir. They take it usually three times.) I also have an old peoples home (retirement community). Not everyone move there. The main reason for the place is moving gravestones to the graveyard. It is not possible if sim lives alone. So, most of my single sims, widows or elders who lives without their children ends up to a old peoples home. When sims move there, they must be very old and retired, like they are in real life also (at least here where I live.)

When I was teen, it was more normal to let adult children live with their parents but as adult it looks somehow a little bit odd. In Ts2 it is easy to make children move away. It is able to play multiple household. In Ts3 I must chose household and it is little problem. Last time I built a own house in a same lot to a elder mother and her son stayed in his childhood home with his wife. So, I can still play both of them. It would be more difficult if there is more than one child...

I play generational homes. Oldest child moves back in with the parents after university and inherits their home and all their money, so the elders will usually have a huge helping hand with childcare for their oldest child, as that child and their spouse are focused on getting up in their careers and reaching their LTWs. I do also sometimes have elders who just continue the crazy stories that they were living as adults. I have elders whose partner dies sooner and end up remarried. Things like that. But the only time I ever really have homes with ONLY elders is when the oldest child is off at university and the age-gap between the oldest and youngest kids wasn't so big that the parents are still raising kids by the time their oldest returns.