But it seemed like such a good idea at the time!

[eaglezero]

1.  Only download hair that goes directly into the hair bin. (This means get rid of all that extra custom hair).
2.  Have only 5 additional meshes of hair for each category in the hair bin.
3.  Have no more than 5 additional outfits for each sim category.
4.  Only download different body size meshes and allow 3 additional outfits for their clothing categories. Eg (Consort's Fat mesh).
5.  Reduce the numbers of bed and rug recolours in my downloads folder to...? (please suggest a number because I have well over 150 on beds alone).
6.  Remove any item of furniture that I have never used on a lot..anywhere.
7.  Remove an old download if I add a new download.
8   Resist downloading painting recolours (sob).
9.  Not go off and start a new user account and set up a new neighbourhood so that I don't have to deal with this problem.
10. Not to use step 9 as an excuse  to find yet more stuff to download.
11. Not visit websites and write silly messages so that I can avoid following the 12 steps.
12  Not play any neighbourhood until I have completed these (12) steps.

Will anyone hold my hand while I undergo these steps?  I'm going to be crying alot and finding excuses for not removing stuff.  How do I know? Because that's what I did that last time and it obviously didn't work: all the folders are even bigger than they were before!

My downloads folder is 1.6 gb, down from 2.8. I recently removed about a gigabyte of downloads from my game, and that was without even looking at recolors. Two days ago I deleted all the objects I've never, ever used (like step 6!) and a week ago I went through and removed all the makeup and walls I'd never used (there were a TON of those). There's a really good advantage to this too: it's REALLY easy to find the items I want in the catalogue now! Seriously, prune your catalogue, if for no other reason than that it will make decorating houses go by more quickly in the future.

Steps I really need to do:
1. I have a million custom hairs in my downloads, but I only use a handful. I really hate wading through all the others in the catalogue, but deleting them is so tedious!
5. ahahaha. Bed and rug recolors. I have a ton of bedding recolors from when the game first came out and I just downloaded anything I could get my hands on. They look really crappy and are colors that don't fit any of my walls (neon purple? orangey brown? weird blue pixelated squiggles?). I bet I could delete half the bedding recolors I have and not even notice.

Steps I think might be excessive:
3. I like clothes. If I didn't have about thirty billion other outfits, my poor sims would all be dressed the same, because I insist on them wearing clothes I like (and preferably ones that match the decor of their house in some way).
7. If I prune my downloads, then I only have the stuff I really want in the game. No need to induce extra stress by trying to delete things I like and use whenever I download something new.

[angelyne]

I like clothes. If I didn't have about thirty billion other outfits, my poor sims would all be dressed the same, because I insist on them wearing clothes I like (and preferably ones that match the decor of their house in some way).

I did that lol.  My three girls are named Summer, Autumn and Wynter.  Summer is a blue-eyed blond who wear pink and has a pink house and pink furniture.  Autumn is a redhead with green eyes.  Her clothes are green and so is her house and decor.  Wynter is a dusky black haired girl.  She wears black and favors earth tones.  Ridiculous no ? lol

[eaglezero]

I like clothes. If I didn't have about thirty billion other outfits, my poor sims would all be dressed the same, because I insist on them wearing clothes I like (and preferably ones that match the decor of their house in some way).

I did that lol.  My three girls are named Summer, Autumn and Wynter.  Summer is a blue-eyed blond who wear pink and has a pink house and pink furniture.  Autumn is a redhead with green eyes.  Her clothes are green and so is her house and decor.  Wynter is a dusky black haired girl.  She wears black and favors earth tones.  Ridiculous no ? lol

I like sims to be all coordinated with their houses because I can really easily tell who's who. And also because I have to watch them in their houses for extended periods of time, and I don't want my eyes to fall out from looking at clashing colors for too long!

[Regina]

What would actually happen if stuff was removed from the catalog that was in use in lots? Would they revert back to the original (or in the case of new meshes-what they were based on)
I have a bunch of recolours/new meshed stuff that I am going to try to get rid of-but because of my kids, I don't know if they are in use. I'm not going to go through their neighbourhoods, my youngest daughter has about 30 occupied lots! I'm too darned lazy...

I've done this a couple of times--accidentally deleted something I forgot was being used.  Basically nothing happens other than the object disappears and if it's a surface with something on it, say a desk with a computer, the object on it is gone, too.  In TS1 there was a message that came up upon loading the house saying objects were missing.  With TS2 there's no warning.  You can basically just go into the house and find it bare.   

I also found that when you 'edit' walls and floors in HomeCrafter it will do basically the same thing.  It doesn't edit the files, but deletes the old and makes completely new, so any house that's been using those files has to be re-done.  Imagine my chagrin when I discovered this in about 8 homes that I had decorated, only NOT to remember which walls and floors were originally in them! 

[Sagana]

I'm taking some advice from here and trying to reorganize my downloads and add themed sets (I do themes, but then end up adding not themed stuff to the neighborhood, just because I like it or don't have something else or whatever). But of course it's going to take forever. Yet another project <sigh>

Ridiculous no ? lol

*I* don't think it's ridiculous at all :) I tend to give my sims a "color" or a "color pallet". I don't necessarily match their entire house, but a lot of it (bedding, desks, only walls and floors, couches and chairs if they're the only sim or it's their room). It makes it easy to choose new clothes for them and make sure they're different from parents/brothers and sisters/townies/whatever. Sometimes I'll choose a baby's crib - like one with orange basketballs and keep them orange and interested in sports, sportsy wallpaper and the like, all their lives - even choosing aspirations and what magazines they read and jobs based on that. I think of them as Amberites (from Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber) where they all have "colours".

And I actually use the clothes I download - I often have sims change every morning. If I can't get to it every day, very often anyway. I get tired of looking at the same outfit quickly.

PS: I meant there to be a thanks for the thread, thank you in there somewhere.

[simmiecal]

Sandilou  and others -

I'd like to support you in your quest to break your downloading addition. I will you cheer you from the sidelines. Me, I don't have a problem. I only have 4.5gig on my hard drive, but I still have more than 100gig free space, so in comparison, my download folder is small.    "De nile" - not just a river is Egypt.

*slinks away to download some new shinies at MTS2*
(Numenor just put up a hack to stop the shakes after drinking expresso.......*downloads*)

[MutantBunny]

I, too, just delete at will from the game folder. The itme is simply gone when you enter the home.

BUT: I read someplace that deleting this way can make lots that had the item which was delted crash at loading. I have had a few lots that crashed (if that happens, I just bulldoze them.) But I can't say it's from deleting items from the game folder, because I know that this DOES work ok--at least most times.

[Bangelnuts]

Sandilou  and others -

I'd like to support you in your quest to break your downloading addition. I will you cheer you from the sidelines. Me, I don't have a problem. I only have 4.5gig on my hard drive, but I still have more than 100gig free space, so in comparison, my download folder is small.    "De nile" - not just a river is Egypt.

*slinks away to download some new shinies at MTS2*
(Numenor just put up a hack to stop the shakes after drinking expresso.......*downloads*)

SimmieCal you are the reason my DL folder had to be culled from 2.00 gig to 1.15 gig yesterday :Dyour link to retail sims cooked my goose which in turn led me to purchase a subscription to simconnection just to get the remaining "retail items" and of course a downloading spree elsewhere. I haven't a clue exactly what I cleaned out yet other than some furniture and walls and carpet i never used. seriously I offer my condolences to sandilou and my other fellow DL addicts I currently have 194 gig free space on my hard drives just to make me feel better

[Sandilou]

Posted by: JadeEliott

You know, Sandilou, that is brave of you to look at this as an addiction and try to cure it (I applaud any attempts at self-awareness and improvement), but I rather think this is a bit much. I address this to all of us, including me.

The 12 steps are written 'tongue in cheek'! (British sense of humour).  One of the reasons why I didn't originally post the 12 steps after I'd drafted them was because I realised that (apart from the hundreds of additional wall paints and flooring that I'd picked up along the way), most of my DL folder is in use.  I pruned it down nicely over the Christmas holidays. I will continue to do so until it meets most of the limits stated in my 12 steps.  

I have a strategy that's really helped;  each time I've gone into that particular user account since Christmas, I've focused on clearing out one section.  I started with the hair section, because I noticed that the mirror was taking longer and longer to launch.  I did all categories of hair, then went onto doing each of the clothing sections, chucking out any stuff that had lost meshes along the way.  Next  I dealt with furniture, then electrics, and decorations and so on, until I had done every section in the buy catalogue.  It's such a simple approach yet it works.

Another thing I've done that helped alot, was start a brand new neighbourhood on another user account.   I add new downloads to that account instead, and thankfully  I'm now really choosy about what I put in, so there's really not all that much there.  In my Matyville 'hood, I haven't added anything at all.  

As a result of this learned behaviour,  I find it easier to recognise when to address download reduction: it's when playing the game feels more like a chore than fun, because everything takes too long to load, the game lags and the virtual memory keeps struggling.   I guess I 'saw the light'  when I launched a brand new vanilla game and couldn't believe how quickly it loaded. Compare times:
Vanilla game:     1.5 - 2mins to neighbourhood screens   30-45 secs to chosen neighbourhood,  1-2 mins to selected lot
Custom game:    20 mins to neighbourhood screen            4 mins to chosen neighbourhood,  4-10 mins to selected lot

To conclude, I'd rather have speedy access to the game than lots of custom content;  I'm happy to settle for maxian defaults and opt for a tiny amount of good quality over quantity with downloads.   I'm more into finding mods and hacks that add something new or get rid of little annoyances so that I can simply enjoy playing the game. 

[blubug]

Of course, I'm cured now.  I really don't have a problem and I'm not in denial.

Blah does this mean I would have to get rid of my 122 adult female bathing suits ? The hell with that !!

I will just get a better system that loads my game in half the time.  So there.

And procastination rules !..  I embrace it !  .. All hail the procastinator  ..I will sweep dust under the carpet, I will stuff everything in the closet and jam shut the door.  I will push everything to the back of the fridge until the day it tries to crawl out on it's own, I will buy oodles of baskets and toss everything in it so I don't have to sort through it.  I will stuff stuff everything else that doesn't fit in the basement.  I am procastinator hear me roar!

I agree 100 percent. But I did actually buy a better graphics card and more ram just for the game (don't tell my dad, he still thinks it wasn't enough for my work purposes!) But I did spend a whole 20-hours in total weeding through my custom downloaded clothing for all ages and categories, and dropped the number from about 6000 to about 3700. That was a nightmare, but I must say, before I did that, I only looked at the first 10 pages (at most) of clothing when creating a sim. Now I can look at all the clothes really fast and can't decide because I have only my favorites left. So I use a lot of the clothing on my ugly NPCs and townies, with a complete makeover. Now I only download the clothing I really like.
I guess this is because I love buying stuff for everyone else in real life, but I'm too stingy to buy anything for myself, I know fabric prices and I can design and sew my own clothes, so I always think I'll make that myself for 1/5 of the price, but am too lazy to do it, actually. And I can get ideas for new stuff for me- which I'll probably never make.

[Entgleichen]

the undesirable society  that are part of the homeless townies in my neighborhood

This thread is about download addiction, and i need to download the skins and clothes of these sims. They would definitely fit into my NB. Where did you get them?

[Kristalrose]

Hello, my name is Kristal, and I have a downloading problem.  I have been clean for about 3 days now.  I have not downloaded anything in three days.  But, I am finding it hard to resist.  And, I am also finding it hard to clean the downloads out.  I keep looking at stuff and thinking, "I know I'll use that." or "But that's so cute!" or "Don't I have a sim wearing that right now?" and so I can't delete it. 

[Emma]

The only thing I have gotten rid of so far are cloned potties, changing tables and cribs-the nanny didn't seem to want to use them!
Oh well, that is some stuff cleaned out

[Bangelnuts]

the undesirable society  that are part of the homeless townies in my neighborhood

This thread is about download addiction, and i need to download the skins and clothes of these sims. They would definitely fit into my NB. Where did you get them?

Mod the sims 2 had the baglady by berg and the pervert and druggie.sussi had the make up used on the wino and tsr had the wino's hideous striped suit.the hat is a maxis item. and I am a downloadaholic

[Sandilou]

I have  64GB left...from the original 111GB available.   But that's not really the issue - decluttering is, so last night I started to put stuff in folders and pull out stuff to delete later...after almost 2 hours I hadn't made so much as a dent:  the scroll bar had barely moved.   So today I spent an hour doing a JM special - deleting any unidentified download listed as a random number. My download folder is now 3.18GB (3.20GB).     I discovered alot of those numbers were from custom sims in CAS.  Deleting those in game takes too long.   I'm sorely tempted to detonate every third item in the download folder!   

I must also confess that I did add a few downloads yesterday, (I'm not an addict, I'm not) but they were such large items with recolours .. (just a couple of cars), but to my credit I took them out again when I realised that they used up a HUGE amount of file space.

[kaarinah]

I started cleaning out my downloads ages ago. When I started I had about 3,5GB of downloads. Today I finally went through the last folder and checked the size of the downloads folder. It's now 4,8GB with almost 28.000 files  (That might be becuse I didn't exactly stop downloading while cleaning out...)

[Brynne]

I just got mine down to 2.81 Gigs. Just as I feared, bald women are everywhere. 

[Bangelnuts]

I just got mine down to 2.81 Gigs. Just as I feared, bald women are everywhere. 

Join the Bald sim club I had no clue exactly what i deleted until I entered my hood and found interesting flashing blue stuff all over the place and Body shop had maxis replacements left and right.

[Jorenne]

*Feels irritatingly smug about the way I cleaned out my downlaods*

I didn't have any baldies, but then I took the time to change all my sims hair to default and didn't open my game at all until I was done cleaning out.  I had a couple of sims who ended up in the burgandy and cream shirt/capri's and many of my men are now wearing a default suit.  But I can deal with that  for as long as it takes me to redress them all