You might think “What’s there to know about doing laundry? You throw the clothes in the washer, then the dryer, then you put them away.” While that boring description of this common house chore might be true in real life, doing laundry in The Sims 4 has never been more fun. Doing laundry can have many different outcomes, both positive and negative. With all the fragrance, cleanliness, and dampness combinations and multiple ways to do laundry, it’s handy to consult a quick guide before diving in. Let’s wash some clothes!
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Laundry Equipment
For the first time ever, your Sims can choose to do their laundry the modern way or the old fashioned way. Laundry Day Stuff comes with a washer, dryer, wash tub, and clothesline. Your Sims can choose any combination of these new gameplay items to get their clothes clean and dry. The washer and dryer are both front-loading. They can be stacked on top of each other or placed side-by-side. Both the washer and dryer can be upgraded to improve the quality of the clothing in various ways and to reduce the chance of the machines breaking down.
The new hampers keep your Sims’ clothes contained in one place. When Sims change their outfit, their dirty clothes will be added to the hamper. The hamper does not need to be in the same room as your Sim. Clothes will be added to the hamper no matter where it is on the lot. Slob Sims will leave their dirty clothes on the floor even when there is a hamper on the lot. Eventually, laundry hampers fill up and more clothes cannot be added to it until the clothes in the hamper are removed. It’s ideal to have one hamper per Sim in your household. This will ensure your Sims won’t need to do laundry more than once a week in-game.
Clothing
Clothing piles have varying states of cleanliness, dryness and fragrance. The state of your Sims’ clothes is dependent on a variety of factors. Sims who change outfits with low hygiene will leave dirty clothes and Sims who have just gone swimming in a pool will leave wet clothing when they change outfits. Laundry additives make clothes smell either fragrant or foul.
Cleanliness: Pristine > Clean > Used > Dirty > Filthy
Dryness: Dry & Warm > Dry > Damp > Soaked
Fragrance: Fragrant > No Fragrance > Foul
Each clothing pile can have any combination of these three attributes at the same time. Wearing clothes with positive states will give your Sims positive emotional buffs, while wearing clothes with negative states will slap them with negative emotional buffs and put them in a bad mood. Upgrading the washer and dryer will help your clothes come out dry and pristine more often.
A folded pile of clean clothes. The butterflies around it indicate that it is fragrant.
Clothes can be folded or unfolded. When a clothing pile is discarded by changing outfits, it will appear unfolded either on the floor or in the hamper. When clothes are removed from either the dryer or clothesline, they will be folded.
Clothes left out for too long will decay in quality. Clothes will also decay in quality if they’ve been left for too long in the washer, wash tub, dryer, or on the clothesline. Folded clothes that are not put away will deteriorate into unfolded clothes. The cleanliness, dryness, and fragrance states of the clothes will also decay over time. It’s best to wash, dry, and put away your clothes as soon as they are ready to avoid this decay.
Your Sims can Search Pockets on clothing piles to find simoleons and small objects.
Washing Your Clothes
Select a hamper with clothes in it and select Do Laundry, then choose Add to Washing Machine or Wash in Wash Tub. Hampers do not need to be full to do laundry, but they can’t be empty. Your Sim will pick up all clothes on the lot and take them to the wash tub or washer.
Select Wash Clothes on the washer or wash tub. Washing clothes with the wash tub takes up more of your Sim’s time. They can’t press a button and go do something else until the wash cycle is finished; they must wash by hand at the tub. The advantage to washing clothes by hand is the small amount of Fitness skill your Sim will gain by scrubbing the clothes in the tub. It’s best to use the wash tub outside because it leaves a lot of water on the ground.
Your Sim can watch the wash cycle in the washer but this has a chance of making them dizzy. When the washer finishes its cycle, it will chime. A high chime indicates a positive outcome. A low chime indicates a negative outcome.
When your Sim finishes washing clothes in the wash tub, select the wash tub to choose to move the clothes to the dryer or clothesline. The water in the tub gets dirty after washing a load of laundry in it. Your Sim will need to drain the tub and replace the water.
Drying Your Clothes
Clothes can only be dried if they are damp or soaked. Clothes can get damp from being washed or by being worn in a pool.
You can dry damp or soaked clothing on the clothesline or in the dryer. Drying your clothes in the dryer is much faster than hanging them on a clothesline. Click on the damp clothing pile or a full washer or wash tub and select Unload & Move Laundry, then choose either the dryer or clothesline.
Before starting the dryer, click on it and choose Clean Lint Trap if the option is there. Drying clothes with a full lint trap is very likely to start a fire. The dryer is so prone to causing fires that it’s best to clean the lint trap before every load. If the lint trap has been cleaned out, select Dry Laundry. Like the washer, the dryer will chime when it’s finished. A high chime indicates a positive result. A low chime indicates a negative result. Sims can also watch the dryer at the risk of becoming dizzy.
The clothesline takes much longer to dry clothes, but it’s hassle-free. Simply hang your clothes up and wait about 12 hours in-game for the open air to dry your laundry.
Putting Away the Laundry
Unlike real life, the easiest part of laundry in The Sims 4 is putting it away. When your clothes are dry, you can choose to unload them and put them away or put them down somewhere. Generally, you’ll want to put them away immediately to avoid clothing decay. If you opt to unload and put away, your Sim will take the clothes from the dryer or clothesline and toss them into the air where they will magically disappear into your Sims’ dressers and closets, ready to be worn the next time they change their outfit.
Depending on the quality of the clothes your Sims have put away, your Sims can get a variety of positive, neutral, or negative buffs the next time they change their outfit. Your Sims will continue to get these clothing buffs every time they change for the next three in-game days after doing laundry.
Upgrades
The washer and dryer have several upgrades Sims can give them to improve the quality of clothing.
Washer & Dryer
Whisper Quiet
Requirements: Handiness 6, 1 common upgrade part, 1 plumbing upgrade part, 1 electrical upgrade part
Description: This upgrade makes the washer and dryer much quieter when they are turned on.
Speed Cycle
Requirements: Handiness 7, 2 common upgrade parts, 1 plumbing upgrade part, 1 electrical upgrade part
Description: This upgrade makes your clothes wash and dry faster.
Tungsten Drum
Requirements: Handiness 8, 2 plumbing upgrade parts, 2 electrical upgrade parts
Description: This upgrade makes the washer and dryer less likely to break.
Washer Only
Presoak
Requirements: Handiness 5, 1 common upgrade part, 2 plumbing upgrade parts
Description: The presoak upgrade makes your clothes wash a little slower, but increases the chance of the clothing being pristine.
Laundry Additive Tray
Requirements: Handiness 6, 1 common upgrade part, 3 kitchen upgrade parts
Description: With this upgrade, you can add flowers to the washer to make the clothes come out smelling fragrant or you can add food to make the clothes smell foul. Flowers and food can be added to the wash tub without an upgrade. You must have the flowers and food in your inventory to add them to a load of laundry. Sims with level 4 Mischief skill can add soap to break the washer if this upgrade is installed.
Dryer Only
Lint-Less
Requirements: Handiness 5, 1 common upgrade part, 1 electrical upgrade part, 2 kitchen upgrade parts
Description: The dryer will no longer produce lint. This will make your clothes dry faster and eliminate the risk of starting a fire.
Add-On Pack Compatibility
Laundry Day Stuff can of course be used with any and all other packs for The Sims 4, but the Sims Team has integrated Laundry Day Stuff with a few other packs. You do not need any of these packs to play The Sims 4: Laundry Day Stuff, but you will notice some nice extra touches here and there while using Laundry Day Stuff if you do own any of the following packs:
Cats & Dogs
Cats will jump up onto washers and dryers and play with the dripping water from the clothesline.
Parenthood
Children will build the Responsibility character value from doing laundry.
Vintage Glamour
Butlers will wash and dry the laundry, but will not put clean laundry away. Your Sims will still have to put their own clothes away after the butler has done the laundry.
What About Laundromats?
There is no laundromat lot type in The Sims 4: Laundry Day Stuff, but you can still place washers and dryers on community lots and send your Sims there to do their laundry if they have clothes in their inventory. The washers and dryers also come with one swatch that has a coin slot to give them a laundromat feel.
