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To delete a household in The Sims 2, open Neighborhood View, select the family in the Family Bin, then click Delete and confirm if prompted. The game’s Double Deluxe manual describes the action this way: “To delete a family from the game, select the family and click the Delete button.” The manual calls households “families.”
Delete a family from the Family Bin
- Go to Neighborhood View for the neighborhood that contains the family.
- Open the Family Bin and select the family you want to remove.
- Click Delete. Confirm the prompt if the game displays one.
The Family Bin belongs to a specific neighborhood; it holds families until they are placed in residential lots and provides controls to move or delete them. See the Family Bin overview.
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The Sims 2: Double Deluxe - PC | $34.52 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Sims 2 - PC | $4.50 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Sims 2: Fun with Pets Collection - PC | $29.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Sims 2: Nightlife Expansion Pack - PC | $13.95 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Sims 2: Apartment Life Expansion Pack | $44.49 | Buy on Amazon |
What deleting a family does—and does not do
Deleting a family through the Family Bin is the in-game way to remove it from that bin. It does not erase every trace of the Sims from neighborhood data: character files are converted to stub files that preserve information needed for references such as other Sims’ memories. For an ordinary in-game deletion, use the Delete control rather than manually removing character files. The Family Bin overview explains this behavior.
Deleting a household is different from removing its lot
The game treats family deletion and lot removal as separate actions. Use Delete on a family in the Family Bin to remove that family; use the Bulldoze Tool when your goal is to remove a lot from the neighborhood, as described in the Double Deluxe manual.
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Moving an occupied lot to the Lot Bin is not a complete erasure of its Sims’ information. It transfers the Sims out of the neighborhood, but other Sims may retain memories and gossip references. If you only want a household out of play, use the in-game family controls rather than editing neighborhood files. See the neighborhood corruption guide.
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Avoid deleting neighborhood files to remove one family
- Do not delete files from the neighborhood’s Lots folder. Lot information is stored both in lot files and in the neighborhood package; deleting a lot file directly can leave the neighborhood incomplete. Handle lot removal in-game instead. See the neighborhood corruption guide.
- Do not delete the entire Neighborhoods folder for a single-household cleanup. That is a broad reset that removes families, houses, universities, downtowns, and shopping suburbs. See the neighborhood reset guide.
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