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.

So here are some things my elders do.

1. If they have a big family and plan to keep in touch and host family reunions, dinners, holidays, etc, I keep them in their big empty nest house and they usually find post-retirement activities in running a related business to their interests, hobbies, former careers (if they liked them), or they go play bingo (mod ), socialize with their contemporaries at a senior center (visitor adjustor guarantees elder-only spaces), make elder friend groups that go around bowling, karaoking, whatever their wants are - that gets extra focus once retired and they have extra freetime.

2. They stay in their original house, but their children move back with them because it's more affordable, and grandparents dote on incoming grandchildren and offer bonus childcare options. Great for grandparent bonding

3. A mix of 1 & 2 is a vacation home they visit frequently and will take the grandkids with them which offers more bonding time. I usually teleport and move the children in before taking the vacation (if the parents/children live elsewhere), just so everyone is playable. Making tag-along sims selectable by other means can be sort of wonky on vacation and it's easier if they are just a part of the household from the get-go. When the vacation is over, I will go into the parents' house and teleport the kids back and make them part of their original families.

4. If they need to downsize, I open a temporary business and sell anything they aren't taking with them - this creates a good money nest egg for their retirement. When everything is sold, the business closes. They move out to a smaller, more manageable abode. I have two subhoods with really good, fair weather with three summers and one wet season (no winters), which are great places for elders to retire to.

5. With a few mods, I do have retirement villages. What one does (by Chirs Hatch, a placed birdbath modded item on an apartment lot) is that you can move them into a unit of an apartment, and if they are retired, it will look for only elder townies or downtownies to move into the empty units, so it really feels like a retirement community. The second thing it does is, after the first day, it looks for living relatives of the elder sim and has the relatives do a walk-by in the afternoon each day as if they are checking in on the elder; a very wholesome activity and easy way for the elder to remember to keep in touch. Though because they are apartments, it's highly suggested to get the select your cemetery mod because graves and apartments can get wacky - it sends the grave somewhere you might not find it if they are the last living sim in the unit.

Some elder-related pics of mine:
pics of 2 retirement places
Another Retirement place
Retiree Life
Elders Eldering

Don't forget about Chris Hatch's Senior Centre mod where you can send your elders off lot for a few hours as well.

This current gameplay I started 11 months ago, I am playing Elders and premades for the first time. Mortimer and Denise still live in their original homes. I have a senior center for Elders to hangout at. A retirement home sounds to difficult and like a lot of work.

With the Oldies, I decided to headcannon them being from Bluewater Village, so that's where they currently live. Herb and Coral live in the same house they purchased when they got married. Every Sunday the Pleasants come over for Sunday Lunch/Dinner. Lilith is really close to her grandparents and autonomously come by a few times during the week. I was planning on having Coral move in with the Pleasants after Herb pass away. But now, I am thinking of having both Herb and Coral move in with the Pleasants, so they can see the twins off to college (hopefully Herb lives that long).

They are very active and known in the neighborhood. They always get visitors and make lunch for the guests. They have an open door policy with family and friends. I am having fun playing them (as well as Denise Jacquet and Mortimer Goth, they all know each other).

When Denise pass away her house and everything will go to her only son Gilbert. The house is already remodeled and prepared for grandchildren.


When Mortimer pass away, Cassandra and Alexander will inherit everything. The house was already remodeled to include two more bedrooms and an extra bathroom. (I might still be able to add one more bedroom if needed).

Darren Dreamer will be turning into an elder soon, he will remain in the house. Dirk will inherit the house and move back in after college with Lilith, whom he will marry. They will raise children there. I remodeled the Dreamer house already, so there is plenty of space for Dirk's future children.

Daniel and Mary-Sue will also be turning into elders soon and will remain in the house. Angela will inherit the house from them.

I have all the elders socializing, building stronger relationships with their children and/or grandchildren. They work on their hobbies, skills and lifetime wants. I also have them travel. So, they are fun to me. The seniors will pass their homes down to their children or grandchildren; so there is no need for them to downsize.

My elders live in retirement homes. Their children come and get them once a week and take them home (or out to dinner)f for dinner and hang around for a little bit. I got one elderly couple that has 5 children so that means they go to a child's home 5 days a week. My elders home is played every rotation.

My elders home is in the neighborhood where most of their children live. But now since I read Justpetro reply, and me living in Florida (where people in north America go to retire), I'm rethinking my elders living arrangements and going to make a new neighborhood for my elders (too bad I can't make a vacation spot) and just pretend the family traveled to Florida.

I try to play every sim for who I think they are, so I don't like collective solutions very much. Also - I'm an elder by sim standards, if someone tried to put me n a retirement home or even a retirement hood, I'd probably kick and scream!

Some of my elder sims stay in their family homes, and help out with grandchildren and maybe run home businesses or focus on their many hobbies. Others move out to smaller houses and get a bit of much needed rest from family life, just focusing on being well and happy and keeping up friendships and romances. They get family reunions often, I like havng them over in their chldren's or nieces' and nephews' households for dinners or festive occasions.

One thing that Dawn Dunne gets to do that I have not done before but really enjoyed, is go to a long stay on a community lot with her family. I have just said this in another thread, but I like havng my sims on community lots for a long time, as a sort of mini vacation, but usually they go on their own (who doesn't need a bit of alone time?) but the Dunnes have had two sim weeks' worth of mini holidays together on the beach lot, and Nan Dawn was with them too, and lived her best life hanging out with her family and the other visitors on Mermaid Beach. This is something I can definitely see myself doing more of in the future with my elder sims, maybe pack them off in a small group of friends to the park lot or the beach and have them pay for tents or cottages, making sure both they and I get a break from everyday routine and the rather repetitive wants cycles sims elders easily get into.

Something quite inexplicable has happened to me. Somehow I've aged up into an Elder! I know I ought to be a Teen, or perhaps a Young Adult, but somehow I've turned into an Elder. I also have what you might call a Lifetime Fear: "Being put into an Old People's Home".

These two circumstances strongly influence how I play Elders in my game.

Firstly I invariably play with Aging off. As a result not a single Sim has aged up from Adult to Elder. Nor have any Sims died. There are actually very few Elders in my game at all. Out of a total of 561 Sims living in the Grand Duchy of Veronaville, only 10 are playable Elders. (There are also 6 Downtownie Elders made by Maxis, 4 CAS-made Townie Elders added by me, and, thanks to the way Maxis designed the game, 18 NPC Elders.)

Of the 10 playable Elders, 4 are Maxis pre-made Elders: viz: Patrizio and Isabella Monty, Consort Hutchins-Capp (his name since his remarriage) and Denise Jacquet. There is also Millburn Pennybags, the rich financier behind Monopolis, and five Elders whom I've made as Elders myself in CAS. The Smythe sisters have been in my game almost from the start; they were my 5th family, and I made them only 3 months after I made Andrew and Gloria. I had (still have) an "Encourage Anyone" mod, and my original plan was that they would bring peace to the troubled lands of Veronaville, by encouraging everyone younger than themselves to be neater and nicer. Enid has high niceness points and Emma, a Virgo, has high neatness. I don't know why I thought the folks of Veronaville needed to be neater. Maybe it was Andrew, to whom I was already close, and who is himself a Virgo, who put that idea into my head! In practice Enid and Emma had their limitations as peacemakers; initially they didn't even like each other very much! But, in time, they settled down and, with the help of a mod and a generous grant to buy a computer from the Capp Charitable Foundation for the Assistance of the Deserving Poor of Veronaville and its Environs, they got adult jobs and became worthwhile members of the Eastside Veronaville community. They live in a small traditional house at 46 Bard Boulevard, and rather interestingly they became really close friends of Andrew's teenage boyfriend Julian (now of course Andrew's husband).

The other three playable CAS-made Elders are comparatively new arrivals, and all three of them live in the Veronaville suburb of Monopolis. Alastair and Anna Auld live at 44 The Strand, and have a teenage son called Tommy Auld. Alastair (Knowledge) is a retired athletics coach, while his wife Anna (Romance) is still very much active in a fashion design team. I understand that she is responsible for some of the arguably outrageous barely-there designs for both sexes, that can be seen everyday in the streets of Veronaville. "Auld" is a Scots word meaning old, but it is quite a common surname in Scotland. Noreen Hughson is a very new arrival at 101 Marlborough Street, Monopolis. She is the mother of Flora Hughson (who is married to Kenny Marley, but has kept her maiden name), and the Grandmother of teenage girl Irma Hughson. All the family, including Corah Howden who lives with them, are Romance Sims. The Hughson family have yet to make their mark on Veronaville society, but I have every confidence that they will do. Their surname is of course a tribute to Mog Hughson, one of my favourite modders here at Mod the Sims.

Consort has remarried and has moved out of Capp Manor and into a large house at 95 Bard Boulevard, where he and his glamorous young wife April have a baby son called Caspar. Consort is not even remotely thinking of retiring! It would be a much braver person than me, that would tell him to go and live in an Old People's Home!

Though few in numbers, especially compared to the 107 playable teenagers in the Grand Duchy, the Elders in our Veronaville all see themselves as active members of the community. None of them are going to get shunted off to an Old Folks Home, at least not while I'm around.

Yeah but think of the fun you and the Veronavillians are missing out on by not joining my retirement community...

Okay, but did y'all ever see The Thursday Murder Club? Those elders were not "shunted" into that old folks home. They chose it. They fought for it. They loved it. And with good reason! It was a beautiful setup where members got their own apartments -- and very nice ones, too, the kitchen in Elizabeth's was bigger than my first apartment -- set their own schedules, came and went as they pleased, and had access to medical care, gardens, and all kinds of resources for keeping active doing what they wanted to do. Then when they began to fail, they only had to move a few hundred yards into the hospice wing, where their friends and spouses could sit with them and see them off peacefully and with dignity when the time came. You really couldn't ask for more.

Yes, in real life, "retirement communities" and "old folks homes" and "care homes" are often snakepits; but they don't have to be. Certainly not in our personally crafted little simulated worlds! Without the period of failing and increasing disability with age, they are also less necessary; but they can be a lot of fun to play.

I don't do anything special. I just let them live where they live, because I let one of their children live with them (the others move somewhere). I try to max out their skills and, sometimes, I make them a garden, and I like to decorate the house with their paintings, but I do that with other life stages as well. I also make them retire.