Here is my recommended mods list for The Sims 3. These are all the mods I use in my game, organized by category.
Just like my Sims 2 mods list and Sims 4 mods list, this list is a constant work in progress. I update this page as I add mods to my game or remove the ones I no longer use. I typically play each game in cycles, so this list will be updated when I’m in a Sims 3 cycle. Check back soon!
Last Updated: 05/22/2021
Table of Contents
- Essential Mods
- Baby & Toddler Mods
- Career & Role Mods
- CAS & Genetics
- Default Replacements
- Environment Mods
- Miscellaneous Mods
- Money Mods
- Pose Mods
- Pregnancy Mods
- Retired Mods
- Romance Mods
- Shopping Mods
- Wish Mods
- Updates
NRAAS Mods (Essential)
These mods are essential, and I could not play without them. Download these first!
- Story Progression – Replaces EA’s Story Progression with a MUCH better system. I also recommend downloading the optional modules for this mod especially Career, Extra, Money, Others, Population, Relationship, and Skill.
- Master Controller – Adds options that allow you to control and change just about anything in your Sims 3 world. Also allows you to select any Sim in the world. I also recommend the optional modules including Cheats, Integration, and Progression.
- Mover – I use this mod to retains the dreams and opportunities of Sims when I switch active households. Also removes the “greater than 8” and “requires adult” restrictions.
- Overwatch – Periodically cleans up errors and eliminates junk that accumulates while you play. I find that this mod reduces lag – especially in saves with several generations of Sims.
- Error Trap – This mod catches and corrects data corruption errors.
- Retuner – Another very handy NRaas mod that allows you to retune many different things. I use it to reduce the price of groceries and books, and to lower bills.
- Saver – Prompts you to save after a given amount of playtime. This one is a lifesaver if you never remember to save.
- Debug Enabler – This mod exposes EA debug commands so they are usable in game. I use it mostly to reset stuck objects.
You can see the settings I use for the NRaas mods here any my Story Progression settings here.
Baby & Toddler Mods
These mods impact babies and toddlers and their interactions in the game.
- Baby Clothes with Legs – No more burrito babies. These outfits give your babies little legs.
- Baby Hair – See your baby’s hair color as soon as they’re born!
- Faster Toddler Training – This mod allows toddlers to learn skills in 1/3 the time and encourages Sims to autonomously teach toddler skills. You will need to register an account to download from Sims Asylum. Use a Gmail address for the best results.
- White Formula Default Replacement Bottle – Replaces the green milk baby bottle with a white milk bottle. No more disgusting green milk!
Career & Role Mods
These mods affect careers or roles (as in Sims who perform a role at cash registers) in your world.
- Careers – This mods has a lot of features and modules relating to careers. I primarily use it to give my unplayed Sims the “unemployed” career to prevent them from being assigned as coworkers in jobs I don’t approve of. I also like the additional self-employed options and academic careers.
- Register – Allows you to select which Sim you want to perform certain roles in town (such as cashiers, etc.) With this mod, you can let your playable Sims work jobs in town instead of random townies.
CAS & Genetics Mods
These are mods that affect Create-A-Sim or the game genetics in some way.
- No Mutated Hair/Eye Color – Forces newborn Sims to have their parents’ or grandparents’ eye and hair colors. Prevents a random (mutated) color from being chosen.
- Zoom-In CAS Camera – Allows you to zoom in closer in CAS to edit your Sims and pets.
Default Replacements
Although technically custom content, I’m putting them in the mods list. These are the replacements I’m currently using in my game.
- Sugar Pill Skin by BurntWaffles
- Bruno’s Behind These Eyes TS2 to TS3 by BurntWaffles
- Bloom’s Sexy Feet
- Cute Feet for Toddler’s and Children
- CAS Overhaul – Default replacements for much of the clothing – even store stuff and expansions/stuff packs – to remove that horrible shiny texture.
- Default Replacement Makeup by Coeurvid
- Default Replacement Brows & Facial Hair by SimpleLife
- Baby Skin Default Replacement
I actually like the Sims 3 hair textures, so I use the in-game hairs and I also own a ton of the store hairs so I have a large, matching selection.
Environment Mods
These are mods that affect the environment in some way. They’re the Sims 3 equivalent of Sims 2 neighborhood mods.
- Blue Skies & Sunshine Lighting Mod – A default lighting mod that overrides the lighting in all worlds. Makes the environment and the Sims look so much nicer, plus gets rid of that awful bloom in the default lighting. I use the St. Claire’s water version.
- Enchanted Environment – Replaces the EA sun, moon, clouds, rainbow, stars, snow, frozen pond texture, and snowy footprints with much nicer versions. (Mod is no longer available from the creator. Download directly from my Mediafire.)
Miscellaneous Mods
These are mods that don’t fit into any other category.
- Always Put Books Away – Makes Sims more likely to put books away instead of leaving them sitting around. You will need to register an account at Sims Asylum to download.
- Cooking & Ingredient Overhaul – Adds tons of new recipes and ingredients to the game.
- Go Here – This mod replaces the “Go Here” interaction with one that can be stacked in the queue, allowing the user to better direct the route of a sim. It also makes inactive Sims less likely to go home, restores haunting ghosts in the grave yard, fixes common routing errors, and allows you to “Teleport” Sims to a location.
- Moar Interactions – Adds new interactions and fixes some of the EA ones.
- Mood Hotfix – Fixes the “Well Rested” moodlet as of Nightlife (if your Sim is in a terrible mood after sleeping in the cheapest bed for no good reason).
- More Fun from Hobbies – Writing, Painting, Gardening, and Tinkering give fun or more fun.
- No or Fewer Automatic Memories – This mod stops the memory scrapbook from filling up with useless memories. I use the “Only Important Memories” version.
- OMSPs – One more slot, please. Use to add more decorations and clutter to surfaces.
- Once Read – This mod replaces all read book type interactions so they only autonomously select books your Sim hasn’t read already.
- Porter – Allows you to pack and move your family to new worlds while keeping jobs and relationships intact.
- Realistically Slower Cars – Slows down all vehicles to a realistic speed in-game.
- Relativity – This mod can be tuned to change the speed at which time flows during the course of a sim-day.
- Tagger – Overhauls the map tagging system. I use it to change lot addresses and to see my Sims’ net worth and sexual orientation from map view.
- Time Shifter – Allows you to set the time of day, similar to the set hour cheat in Sims 2. Use with caution. Your entire neighborhood will be affected. I mostly use it for taking screenshots if I need it to be night time or day time, etc.
Money Mods
These are mods that impact money or finance in the game.
- Apartments & Roommates Fix – This is the mod I use to manage my rental properties and landlord/tenant system in my Sims 3 Let’s Plays. Allows you to play as landlord and/or tenant.
- Minimum Wage – A mod to lower the pay of all Sims 3 Careers. All jobs now start at $15 per hour.
- Online Banking Mod – This mod adds to all computers the option to use ‘online banking’ (i.e. deposit/withdraw money from a bank account).
- Tax Collector – This mod provides a way to manually collect Tax Money from your sims. The money can then be used in various situations like improving the school or library within the town or financing a children’s home.
Pose Mods
These are the mods I use for posing my Sims in screenshots.
- Sims 3 Pose Player – A buyable object that plays any installed poses (EA or custom) by name. You’ll need to download pose mods to go with the player. There are a ton on MTS and I also recommend Studio Star Girl for Poses.
- Screenshot Backdrop – Color castable backdrop to take screenshots in front of a full bright color.
Pregnancy Mods
These are mods that affect pregnancies in the game.
- Less/More Frequent Male Pregnancy (from Abductions) – I use the “High” chance version.
- Pregnancy Progress Controller – This mod adds a set of pie menu Pregnancy Options to all sims teen and above, both human and pet. It has a ton of functions (choose sex of baby, terminate pregnancy, show status, etc.), but I use it mostly for pausing pregnancy when I’m playing rotationally so Sims don’t give birth unless I’m playing them.
- Teen Maternity Clothes – Although this isn’t a mod, you will need some teen fmaternity clothes if you want teen pregnancy. I use the Woohooer to enable teen pregnancies (see Romance section below).
Retired Mods
These are mods I am no longer using, but I’m leaving them on the list in case anyone’s looking for them.
- Dresser – The mod adds accessories, body hair, makeup, and new hair to all sims. Also has the ability to invalidate CAS parts you don’t want in your town, and replaces them with random choices when a sim rolls them on their outfit. (I found this mod incredibly annoying.)
- Job Overhaul Mod – Sims will now attend interviews for jobs they want and it’s possible they won’t get the job! (Good mod, but in the end I didn’t like waiting on interviews, so I took it out.)
Romance Mods
These are mods that affect Love, Romance, and Woohoo in the game.
- Retuned Attraction System – An overhaul of the in-game attraction system. I use the “Easy Variety Attraction” flavor.
- Sleep Freedom – This mod overrides the EA requirement that teenagers be related to sleep in the same bed together. I’m categorizing it as a Romance mod because I use it so that teens can sleep in the same bed as their young adult partners.
- Woohooer – Adds risky woohoo, teen woohoo, and teen pregnancy. Also improves the romantic systems in the game.
Shopping Mods
Since shopping works differently in The Sims 3, I like using mods to add functionality such as shopping for clothes and selling things in player-owned shops.
- Consigner – This mod replaces the “Buy” interaction on the Consignment Register with one that allows the sale of potions, gems, rocks, metals, insects, relics, and sketches. If you have Pets installed, a new interaction called “Sell Pet” will be added.
- No Fridge Shopping – This mod replaces the meal-making interactions on the fridge with custom ones that check whether the Sim has the required ingredients to make the meal or snack.
- Produce Stand – Allows your Sims to sell anything (including produce and prepared food) from their home lots.
- Shop for Clothes – Adds interactions to the clothing rack object that came with Ambitions, allowing your Sim to “shop” for clothes. Removes the ability to plan outfit from all dressers. This mod is obsolete if you have Into the Future.
- Shop from Inventory – Allows you to sell items you have assigned as the store inventory through hacked registers, so you can basically create any type of store or shop you like.
- Written Word – Adds all Sim written books into the bookstore listing under “General.”
Wish Mods
These mods impact wishes, dreams, and opportunities in the game.
- Dreamer – This mod allows your Sims to satisfy unlocked dreams when their criteria is met. If tuned, the mod will stop the timeout of unlocked dreams. Read the instructions carefully. This one requires some fiddling.
- Disable Hopscotch Wishes – Stops your Sims from getting the annoying wishes to play hopscotch all the time.
Hello,
I can’t find the CAS Overhaul because I think the mod has been deleted apparently. Do you have a download link please?
Hi Cindy! I noticed Awesome mod is not on the list. Is there a reson why you don’t use it?
Because I prefer Nraas Story Progression over Awesome Mod and it conflicts with some of the mods I use.
Hello Cindy!
I have followed your youtube channel for like a month now and I must say you became one of my favorites really quick!
I love your playstyle and I’m trying to kind of playing the same way because it’s more fun that way, BUT i’m having some trouble with the money system. I downloaded the Minimum Wage mod but I found it to be a little bit to low so I decided to take it away, but now my sims get money to fast so it’s getting quite booring fast. How do you do make your sims to earn money so it make sense? The money issue is the only thing I have a problem with at the moment.. And sorry about my bad english, it’s not my native language so I hope you understand me..😅
Hi Linda. I need to update the Mods list. There is a new better Minimum wage mod where pay starts at $15/hour for all jobs. I agree the original was too low. You can get the new mod here: https://modthesims.info/d/657165/minimum-wage-remastered-and-realistic.html
It’s always awesome to see when people like your mod! I’m glad you found my mod as something you can use in your own game.
Hi Cindy, Thanks for making Sims 3 more enjoyable but how do you get the walfare payment?
Here’s a tutorial on how to set up welfare for your Sims: https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/sims-how-to-set-up-child-support-welfare-social-security-payments-sims-can-collect-debt-rent-a-house.984219/
Hello Cindy! I love watching your videos and appreciate all the work you do for the community! I’ve been having some trouble though and wondered if you might have any ideas? I have an issue with the sims 3 where I get stuck in a save loop, I’ll go to save the game and it just keeps saving and saving until I eventually have to give up and close the game with my task manager. It seems to happen after I use build and buy mode. The only mods I have in the game are the ones you’ve recommended and I keep my CC down to a minimum and have only used your recommended cc. Thank you in advance if you have any suggestions, I appreciate you either way! Much love
Hi! This can happen if you have buydebug mode on. If you are using buydebug mode, make sure you turn it off first before trying to save! If you’re not manually turning it on, check in Overwatch and see if it’s accidentally set to always on. If that’s not it, I would try taking out all mods and testing it in a test world. If you can save without mods, you know it’s either one of them or its settings causing it. Then, you’ll just be stuck with trial and error. Good luck! I hope you get it figured out!
(Also, you might check the official Sims forums. I did a quick search and found a lot of people had that problem. Maybe some of their suggestions could help.)
Hello Cindy, before I ask the question I want to say thank you for the amount of amazing work you put into everything. I have a question regarding the clothes default replacements. Do you have every clothing item replaced, or do you just select through it? I am asking this because some of the default replacements from that link erase patters and different design images. Which I am not really happy about, I like the fact that it reduces the shine and that it makes the clothes look more 3D, but some designs are actually really nice to be deleted. Thank you in advance! <3
Hi! I just use all the replacements because I don’t care about the stencils, but I think you can go through and just take the ones you want. Might be a bit of work!
Hey Cindy how do u set up Porter. I made a family in Islo Paradiso and the world is very laggy so I want to move my oldest child there and want to keep my relationships and Family tree intact. I just want to know how to set it up?
Thanks for the list! You are one of my fave youtubers! Whenever I feel sad I watch your videos and your positivity cheers me up. Plus, you convinced me to switch to sims 3! I am having more fun than ever with sims! Sorry I went on a rant. Love your content!
(also thanks for accepting my friend request on origin)
🙂
Thank you!!
Thank you. I know this was a lot of work to put together. You da boss. =)
Thanks to your content I’m playing Sims 3 again, which has made my recreation time happier, which has made me happier, which has made me a better me!
That’s awesome! I’m so glad to hear it!
hey Cindy! I was watching your architectual designer stream and i noticed how many grocery items you have in your game. Is it a mod or did u somehow unlock it with NRAAS? Thanks in advance!
Sorry, I need to add this to the list! It’s the cooking and ingredient overhaul here: https://modthesims.info/d/548787/cooking-and-ingredients-overhaul-more-nectar-ingredients.html
Thank you so much! Enjoy Redwood Harbor! can’t wait for next wednesday!
i need the link to brnt waffles cause i cant find the skins on your YOUTUBE
Hi Stacy! The link is right there in the list under Default Replacements.
Hi Cindy 🥸 I got into your YouTube channel a few months ago and am completely obsessed! Seeing how you play neighborhoods actually got me in the mood to change up my play style a bit. I have a question… I recently downloaded Nrass for the Sims 3 (never used it before lol) and I set up the retaining of wishes and opportunities with both MC and Mover so i could switch between households in peace but it still isn’t working… have you ever heard about something like that before? I need to find a solution because playing without saved wishes is just impossible to me. 😭 Thank you so much for your top tier content!
Hello! :3 I installed some mods from here, and now, during my game, some messages from sims are appearing that are not the sims in my house. Can anyone help me with this?
What do the messages say?
News about the lives of sims that are not mine, such as a new relationship, new job, the arrival of a baby and others.
The only mod that does that is Story Progression. I don’t play with SP myself unless I’m doing a legacy challenge. If you don’t want the rest of the neighborhood to move on while you aren’t playing, I would remove the story progression mod.
Thanks! I was trying to find out the mod that makes the messages appear.
Hi Cindy, I want to say that I am huge fan of you and I was wondering what to do when I use a default replacement skin, how do you make it work because I have been having trouble placing the sugar pill skin and I don’t know why, If you could tell me how to work that would be much appreciated.
You’re awesome. Thank you for helping us Simmers.
I am not sure why, but whenever I use the MasterController and the Integration mods in my Sims 3 game, it causes my game to freeze up every time. None of the other mods seem to cause any problems, but these do, for some strange reason. Any suggestions?
Oi, Cindy! Meu jogo é original e tenho problemas com os objetos personalizados com atualização antes de 2017 pois o jogo não roda, esses mods são atuais? Adorei todos!!!!! Parabéns
Heya, Cindy!
Do you have any tips for working with the NRAAS mods, especially story progression? Whenever I start a new save all the single sims almost instantly get married and my sim never has any coworkers because the sims that used to work in the same job as them change careers almost daily, and both really mess with my play style (legacy challenge); do you use any specific configurations to lock sims in careers and make it so their relationships move slower when you’re not playing with them?
Thank you :3
Hi! You can see my post on my settings here: https://pleasantsims.com/nraas-story-progression/
Hey Cindy,
Do you have any mod suggestions that would allow my pregnant sims to go to work? I remember in season one of your sims 3 Pleasantview Let’s Play you had a mod that allowed sims to work until they gave birth. Is that mod still available, I liked the sound of that.
Thanks!
Hi Cindy!
I was wondering if you had any good guides on how to run The Sims 3 with less or minimal lag? I found a thread on Twitter a while back and followed most of those guidelines (including downloading NRAAS and some of the essential mods you listed above), but unfortunately still have some lag in my game. I was wondering if you had any trouble with the infamous Sims 3 lag issues, and if so, what you did to help fix it.
I absolutely love your content, and how you are keeping the amazing games that are The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 alive.
Thank you!
I had lag because I needed to increase texture memory and force the game to recognize my graphics card. I used this guide to fix the problem: https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26753.0
Hi, Cindy! I absolutely love your channel and website, and you’ve inspired me to go back to my games and play again. Thank you! I have a question about the minimum wage mod. When I sent a sim to university, it cost $50K. They gave my sim a needs-based grant to cover most of it, but instead of the money going to the university, it all went to my sim. Have you had this happen? Am I supposed to hold on to it until the end of term or manually pay?
I also have pretty much all the other mods on this list installed, so I’m not sure if maybe it’s a setting from an NRAAS mod that did it.
I totally understand if you don’t know, but I wanted to ask since you’re actively using the mods right now so maybe you’ve had a similar experience.
Thank you again!
Hi Penny. Sorry, I don’t use the Uni parts of that mod, so I don’t know what could be causing it. You might try to ask on the MTS forums and see if anyone can help.
I encountered this problem and I found the source of this problem. It is caused by the Apartment and Roommates Fix mod. This is because the other roommates thinks you’re the owner of the dorm, thus giving their rent money to you. I still don’t know how to fix it though.
Hi, i think i accidentally deleted my previous coment , i wanted to ask if there is a mod to help with cc that doesnt fit the sims body and looks weird?
Hi K. The clothes should fit your Sims’ bodies. If they don’t, then there’s something wrong with the mesh or you’re using a custom body type that doesn’t work with all clothing. If you’re just downloading CC clothing and it looks weird, it’s the specific CC. Make sure whatever you download has a fat morph. I only download CC that has a fat morph or else it can look weird on fat Sims. That’s the only other thing I can think of that might cause a problem. Hope that helps!
Hi, I know this is a pretty late comment but how did you get the default replacement brows & makeup to show up in your game? I moved the eyebrows to my packages folder, it didn’t work. Then i moved them to the overrides folder, but it still didn’t work. My eye defaults work (pets and sims)😭
Hi James! I didn’t do anything special. I just put them in my Packages folder. I have found that sometimes I have to take the Sims into CAS using Master Controller before the defaults show up on them. I don’t know why this is, but it happens with eyes and facial hair.
Hi Cindy. Default Replacement Makeup by Coeurvid link now redirects to a tumblr account and I can’t find the mod there. Can you change it to correct one please?
Also how about adding ellacharmed’s worlds with fixed routing to the list http://www.modthesims.info/m/1515002 ? Always thought they are essential.
The creator moved their Tumblr to this address: https://carversims.tumblr.com/tagged/s3makeup
I won’t add those to the list right now as I am not using them. If I do ever use them, then I’ll add them. But thank you for the suggestion!
Hello Cindy, I’m looking for the cute baby hair CC you have installed, I can’t seem to find it in the list?
Hi! You can find all the baby stuff I use on my Pinterest board here: https://www.pinterest.com/pleasantsims/sims-3-cc-baby-clothes/
Happy Simming!
Hi Cindy!
I just watched your new TS3 episodes on YouTube and I’m hooked! TS3 is my favourite game, although I also love TS2.
I’d like to recommend you several mods, that I think might be useful for you:
* Nraas DebugEnabler is, along with MasterController the “simblender” + “batbox” of TS3, I use both of them all time.
* Nraas Retuner can help you fix or adjust certain things in the game, which would normally require an external mod. For example, if you want to disable the University Mascot, or the ITF portal camera zoom, or adjust the chance of outerwear to be created with gloves, or how much chance there is of an umbrella breaking, or adjusting the price of the stuff you have to buy (food, books, etc).
* Ani’s Workout costs money: – so they have to pay every time they go to the gym:
http://modthesims.info/d/418225/workout-costs-money-updated-for-patch-1-38-1-67.html
* stevebo77’s No Route Fail Tantrum Animations! and No Foot Tapping While Waiting For Clear Route! – because they get very annoying when they find an obstacle on their way:
http://modthesims.info/d/366836/no-route-fail-tantrum-animations.html
http://modthesims.info/d/367578/no-foot-tapping-while-waiting-for-clear-route.html
* daluved’s White Formula Default Replacement Bottle – because it made me really sad when I saw poor little Beau Broke drinking green milk:
http://modthesims.info/d/391044/white-formula-default-replacement-bottle.html
* Cherry92’s Toddler Interactions, TheSweetToddler’s Biggest Little Mod for Toddlers and Adults can Play Peek-A-Boo & Hug Toddlers – they just add more interactions for toddlers, recovering some of the TS2’s ones that are missing in TS3:
http://modthesims.info/d/479364/updated-11-01-toddler-interactions.html
http://modthesims.info/d/617216/biggest-little-mod-for-toddlers.html
http://modthesims.info/d/628160/adults-can-play-peek-a-boo-amp-hug-toddlers.html
* kapaer’s ‘No Stretch’ Children can Series – if you want children to able to do more stuff than what they currently can do by default:
http://modthesims.info/d/579548/no-stretch-children-can-series.html
* severedsolo’s Free Your Pregnant Sim! – it enables certain interactions for pregnant sims, such as playing ping pong, or working out.
http://modthesims.info/d/417728/free-your-pregnant-sim-v1-50-updated-10-03-13.html
* velocitygrass’ Remove stencils/overlays from build/buy/CAS objects in game – this is one of the most wonderful mods that I have in my game. You only need to download the file “velocitygrass_remove_deco.zip”. When you are in CAS, you click on the item to edit the color / pattern, and once there, you bring up the console and type “deco p”: boom! the shine is gone! ALL THE SHINE, the item goes full opaque. If there is a T-shirt with some annoying stencil on it, and you just want it plain: “deco s” – no more stencil. It’s the same with buy mode: you can remove the shine and stencils on all Maxis objects. NO.MORE.SHINE.
http://modthesims.info/d/478307/remove-stencils-overlays-from-build-buy-cas-objects-in-game-edited-01-16-2014.html
* Arsil’s Napping Mat – it works as the dog bed from TS2, where Toddlers can sleep, but this one is actually just for toddlers, and it has a blanket which you can put on the sleeping toddler (“tuck in”). They also get full rest, as if they were sleeping on a crib.
http://modthesims.info/d/593159/napping-mat.html
I normally use dozens more mods, but I think these ones are the best for the style you’re going for.
Hi Marie! Thanks for the recommendations. I agree, MasterController is an essential mod for me and I could not play without it. I’ve also started using retuner to reduce shopping costs and bills to work better with the minimum wage mod. I will definitely check out the others here I don’t have (especially the bottle replacement)! 🙂
How can I download your Creation of the sims 2 Characters i like the way u create them??
Hi Kimberly! All the Sims from TS2 are included in our Sims 3 Pleasantview World download. If you don’t want to play the world, you can save the Sims to your Sim Bin and then move them into other worlds. Download here: https://pleasantsims.com/sims-3-pleasantview/
And me, I reinstalled a few days ago and then I saw you had recreated pleasantview! your timing could not have been more perffect!
Now binging your mod list so I can have the full experience 🙂 Looking forward to whats to come, ATB
Thanks Kayleigh! I hope you have fun with the new world! 🙂
Cindy! I just reinstalled The Sims 3 after months of having it off my computer. You have such perfect timing.
I hope you find something helpful here! I am really getting into Sims 3 lately! 🙂