how to organize sims 4 cc

(aka sims 4 cc is srs bzns p)

custom content, aka cc, is the simultaneous joy and bane of every sims player's existence. on one hand, you get more options! cool shit! on the other, sometimes cc can break your game, or make it lag terribly, or take up gigs and gigs of space on your hard drive... it's to the point where there's memes about how downloading and managing cc has more of a time commitment attached than actually playing the game, and uh... yeah. not exactly a lie lmao

so here's some tips and tricks to wrangle that mods folder!

helpful programs

it might sound counter productive to download even more stuff to your system, but i assure you all these programs are recommended bc they're god-sends, and in other parts of this tutorial i'll be referencing them :,)

bulk renamer: allows you to rename files in bulk

notepad++: lets you edit Resource.cfg

sims 4 studio: allows you to create your own cc and modify others'

sims 4 tray importer: tells you what's saved on a sim or lot

setting up your mods folder

the default mods folder in the sims 4 only goes a couple levels deep, ie you can't sub organize easily. to fix that, you have to manually change some things. you're going to want to locate Resource.cfg. right click on it, and if you downloaded notepad++ there should be an option to edit it. highlight all of the content in this file, and replace it with this:

this allows you to make numerous subfolders to keep your stuff more organized if you're not going to combine your mods :D

that done, i recommend making the actual subfolders lol. if you plan on combining your mods, i also recommend making this a separate folder outside of your mods folder

for the folder names, these can be whatever you're comfortable with, but if a guide would be helpful this is how i personally organize my stuff:

BB (stands for build/buy, ie where i toss stuff to use in building lots)
   bedding
   clutter
   deco
   doorswindows
   floorswalls
   kitchen
   misc
   sets
CAS (stands for create-a-sim, ie where i toss stuff used on sims)
   accessories
   clothes
      bottoms
      full (full-body, like suits and dresses)
      sleepswim (since i have so little sleep, lingerie, and swimsuits, i just toss them all together lol)
      tops
   genetics (where i put details, eyebrows, hairlines, and skin)
   hair
      long
      short
      up (updos, ponytails, and braids)
   makeup
   shoes
OTHER (where i toss whatever doesn't go in other folders lol)

i do highly recommend at least making basic group folders lol, but depending on what you've got, you can add more or use less folders too. the sky's the limit! because we're going to go over combining packages though, just putting things in the appropriate folders and subfolders to begin with really helps tho

note: you may have noticed i don't use spaces or any special characters in my folder names. the reason for this is the sims 4 has difficulty parsing these characters, so if you use them in your mods folder it can slow your game down. i highly recommend avoiding spaces and other special characters at all costs

once the folders are made, if you've already got a cc collection then this is where you start putting .package files in the relevant folder, if you're familiar with them. (if you're not sure what something is, don't worry, we'll go over that in a different section! for now, i'd make a folder to keep things you're not sure about in)

renaming files

i mentioned in the folders section that file names that use spaces or other special characters are bad because they can make your game lag. it's one thing to make a new folder without these characters, but what do you do when you've already got tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of files with clogged file names...? that's where bulk rename comes in, and why we started by making and putting things in folders

go into each folder, and right click on a file. select "bulk rename here." this will open the bulk rename program. in the main window should be a list of all the files in the folder; highlight them. now you can edit the file names in bulk

i recommend starting out by making things more legible in general. often, creators will use spaces or _ characters to make the file names easier to read. yes, it's readable, but it slows down the game ): something you can do is go to the case section, and select title. this will make the first letter of every separate word capitalized, for easier reading. example_file_name.package will become Example_File_Name.package

in the remove section, in the chars box, paste this: " _-()[]*&^%$#@!~{}:;'<>?|,./\+=

doing that will remove all special characters from the file names! Example_File_Name.package will become ExampleFileName.package

to help keep track of who made what, another thing you can do is append creator names before the rest of the file names, if it wasn't there already. (maybe you even made a folder for a specific creator in the last step, lol.) ExampleFileName.package will become CreatorExampleFileName.package

what if a creator put their name at the end of a file name? if you select those files, you can go into the remove section again, and select the arrows next to the "last" box. if you keep pushing it up, you'll see things disappear from the end of the file name. you can the first box to do something similar, just with things at the beginning of a file name

the replace section is also useful! let's say a creator has a nickname, but their "official" name is something else. (for example, plasticbox uses pbox, and orangemittens uses om.) you can use the replace section to replace a term with another, so NicknameExampleFileName.package will become CreatorExampleFileName.package

it'll take a little time to rename things, but just this step alone should speed up your game a whole lot. and if you wanna be lazy about it, instead of doing all the steps you can just remove special characters too lol. you do you

now that things are sped up enough that your game's not gonna lag as bad, now's when you can start identifying and purging content

purging

go into your sims folder, that houses your mods folder. right click on mods, and select properties. keep note of how big your folder size is. this isn't necessary, but if you want to have a "holy shit" moment and feel some accomplishment seeing how much the folder size can change later then do this lmao

this part's kinda fun lol... it's time to M~ play the game ~N ...sort of :,)

boot up the game, and it's up to you where you'd like to begin. create a new household or create a new lot?

once you're in create-a-sim or build/buy, it's also up to you to guage if you think you'll be keeping more content, or purging more content. if you're going to be keeping more content, then you'll select what you want to purge, and either equip it to the sim or place it on the lot. if you're going to be purging more content, then do the opposite and equip what you don't want to a sim or place it on the lot

save the household or lot to your gallery. for households, you may as well fill up all the sim slots and use all the outfit slots to maximize how much you can fit in one household, and for lots you may as well use a large lot. also for lots, don't forget to go through every section, including testing out roofs and wallpapers

exit the game, and open the sims 4 tray importer. it will display a list of households and lots to the left of the screen, and in the right side there will be a window showing some options. select "cc." it may take a moment to load, so let it do it's thing. once loaded, it'll show you a list of the cc you equipped to the sims, or placed on the lot! double click the file, and it will take you into your mods folder, and the file will already be highlighted. depending on if you're purging or keeping, you can delete the file if you don't want it, or copy it to elsewhere if you do want it

(if you're doing more purging, putting what you're keeping into a new folder can be helpful because then you can just delete everything else but the "keeping" folder)

now let's identify what we couldn't make out by file name

identifying

open up sims 4 studio, and give it the info it needs for where your game is installed. then click "my cc" at the right of the program. it might take a moment to load, so let it do it's things. when it does load, it will show you a list of all of your cc in your mods folder to the left, and in the right window it will show you previews of how items will look in-game!

go through your stuff and see what has a file name you couldn't figure out, and rename accordingly now that you can see what it actually is. because it will show you what things look like, you might also find more stuff you want to get rid of lol. s4s has a built-in delete function to make it easy to say "yuck" and yeet uwu

deleting swatches

while you have sims 4 studio open, this is a good opportunity to go through your swatches!

to the right of the preview pane will be some little colored boxes. if you click on each box, the item in the preview should change colors. these are the swatches of the item. go through each swatch, and if you find one you hate, click "remove swatch" to the right of the colored boxes. then hit "save" at the bottom right of the window

okay, so. you've purged entire packages you don't want, and removed a ton of swatches you won't use. now's a good time to check how much smaller your mods folder is. you might be surprised to see how different it is now :O i've legit reduced my mods folder size by gigs

all that done, hopefully you have a more organized mods folder, and hopefully your game runs better! i hope this guide was helpful! ;w;