Everyone has different playstyles, so it'd probably be fun to share the habits and such that you've developed while playing.

Some of mine:

1. If a Sim has a sink in the kitchen, I always try to place it in front of a window.
2. Batbox and ACR adjuster go under the foundation if there's one.
3. Only Sims who've gone to University get a second aspiration, though sometimes I make an exception for one with enough 'life experience' (case-by-case).
4. Spawning a SimBlender on a community lot to turn everyone naked. The ridiculously high-pitched screeches some male Sims let out is simply divine.
5. Making Sims rush into a bedroom as other Sims are trying to get it on. In Hazelton it got to the point where they started doing it themselves.

I've been playing this game so long that I remember the FFS Lot Debugger before somebody made the "Batbox" skin for Pescado. Orginally it and the Macrotastics controller both looked the same - yellow placeholder cubes with red arrows on them like Argon's Townie Brick. To remember which was which, I got in the habit of placing them in certain locations on my lots. To this day, I still put the Macrotastics controller under the left side of the foundation and the Lot Debugger under the right side, even though for several years now both have had skins that make it very obvious which object is which.

I've had a tendency to add laundry rooms since MLCs washer/dryer download. Or if there's no room, add the machines to the bathroom or kitchen. Really adds an extra touch of realism.

Putting cheat objects, such as Simblender or Merola's painting(it's old, but useful for decor as well) when building/furnishing community lot.

That's good ol' Stephen Kearin for ya, the way he made those screeches.

Occasionally, I'll goose or tickle Frank to get a good oral response out of him like that, and he's one of five male Sims of mine with that voice. One time he screamed out of the blue while playing chess with somebody, just to make a scene over a grumbling stomach. You can bet I chuckled at that unexpected reaction.

I have a few habits to share; the first I'll mention is my biggest one.

1.) Topping off my Sim(s) motives even if they're at about a quarter down. When any those bars start looking yellow, I start freaking out.
2.) Topping off a Sim's hunger then bladder then hygiene. Eating puts more urine in the Sim's bladder while answering nature's call makes their arm pits reek more.
3.) I cannot live without ACR and Visitor Controller when playing Sims 2, not anymore.
4.) Painting. Whenever my Sim's motives are good for the time being, it's time to whip that paintbrush around. Even at community lots I have my Sim do this, and if there isn't one I'll open Buy mode and get an easel.
5.) Leaving a kitty kibble and a chew treat outside a Sim's house. I've done this for every single house in my neighborhood even if I'm not planning to play with those Sims much.
6.) When in community lots, I normally isolate my Simsona from everyone else and have her do her own activities. To be honest, this reflects my own seclusion in my bedroom every day.
7.) As far as a Sim's interests are concerned, I deplete all points in Health, Toys, Sci-Fi, School, and Animals. Then I'll balance out the remaining subjects to where there are at least 5 points and there are a couple topics that Sims consider the most favorite.

Putting Inge's cat or bush summoner on a lot - any lot and all of them. I also put the batbox under the foundation if there is one though I recently got rid of macrotastics. I also put the batbox on all lots.

Oh yes, I remember that but I have never been that keen on macrotastics so I didn't have that at first.

The other things I like to do is use utility stuff - all lots have regular lamposts to fit their road, I use Moghughson's parking lots a lot on community lots - both the parkable one and the decorative one, I like the traffic controller, light switches on walls in all rooms and also utility poles and even rain gutters on residential buildings. They add to the cost but it makes me happy.

I max motives at 7 a.m. and then, again, when a sim gets notice of impending car pool or school bus to maximize their chances at a good day.

If a sim with a refrigerator starts to starve, I don't intervene unless the sim is pregnant or a child. Otherwise, if they're too stupid to eat, they can starve to death.

All sims go to college unless they are in their career choice.

In regular hoods, not my restricted-children ones, couples spawn immediately to save those genetics I just made.

The acr controller goes between the mailbox and the garbage can.

Second aspirations go to sims with aspiration tokens, and they correspond to the token they have. I've been playing like that for a while with the premades.

Aspiration tokens?

I choose everything visual - walls, floors, furniture, clothing - on a counting system to force myself out of picking my favourites all the time. I'll go to change a sim's wallpaper, let's say, and I'll look at the last digit of the time. I'll then start either at a random point or at whatever wallpaper they had already and go through one by one until I find one I like and fits into the sim's house, decor, taste, personality etc. That is option number 1. So let's say the time is 13:24, now I'll repeat, going through one by one until I find another that I like for this area, sim, colour scheme. Option 2. Repeat until I reach option 4. I get a lot of variety this way rather than me just sticking to my favourites or whatever happens to be first in the catalogue. I do the same thing picking food.

I like to dress sims in accordance with their personality, aspiration, hobbies, sexuality and career. This way when my I take another sim out I don't have to remember everything about every other sim; they'll be drawn to judge others based on their appearance, just like in real life. It also makes for hilarity with autonomous actions and helps me differentiate different kinds of sims from each other.

I don't make sims skill unless they roll a want for it or the want for promotion. They are allowed to do it autonomously. Toddlers get skill toys which correspond to their parents' skill levels.

I don't decide anything for sims romantically. I use wants and ACR to tell me what I should tell them to do. Often that tells me they aren't interested in dating. Also since ACR I never make a sim try for baby, I just wait and see what they give me. Risky is turned on for all too - and adjusted by sloppiness :D

If playable sims buy something from a sim-owned store I try to have them use it unless they really couldn't afford to shop.

EAxis gave certain premades aspiration tokens. One of those, for example, is Natasha Una from Desiderata Valley, who was given a Knowlege token to balance out her Grilled Cheese aspiration. They also gave some premade children/toddlers aspiration tokens, like Alexander Goth who has a Knowledge token. It's likely these are what they want that sim's aspiration to be.

Hmmm, let's see...

1. I tend to do the kitchen sink and window combo, myself.
2. Desks similarly get tucked near a window.
3. The SimBlender and ACR controller serve a secondary purpose of being either interior decorations or landscaping. The Batbox gets shoved into someone's inventory until it's needed. I just don't like seeing it out.
4. The first thing I do with fresh CAS sims or premades I haven't played before, is upgrade them via the Batbox. If I feel they would have gone to University, they will get that upgrade. Their major will be chosen based on their LTA, their current career (if they have one), their personality, and possibly their interests. I double check to make sure all the proper achievements are ticked. I will also assign them skills, either based on what I think they would have at that point or I will randomize via the Blender. Sometimes I will fudge with CAS sims' interests, OTH, or personality points (adding/subtracting extra) to better suit their character.
5. Most bathrooms will have a mirror, but if there's a pre-existing medicine cabinet I will remove it. I feel the brush teeth interaction takes too long for too little gain.
6. Benefits, benefits, benefits! I will assign Aspiration Benefits as soon as I know they're available.
7. Somewhat contrarily, I hardly ever use Aspiration Rewards. Most of them are restricted so only certain sims can purchase them. Many of them, such as the Weather machine or the Energizer, can only be obtained by someone in the science career and only if I feel they're high enough in their career to have invented/built it. Witches have access to the Kibble of Life and the Elixer of Life. The Counterfeiting machine is for criminals. I'm considering restricting the Love Tub to Romance sims. I haven't tried gifting a Reward from one sim to another, yet, though if it's possible then a sim may do that.

Once a family's final kid ages to child, I put all the baby/toddler stuff in the one of the kid' inventories so they can use it for their own kid when the time comes.

I often teleport a bunch of Sims who should know each other onto a lot, like relatives or Sims who'd be in the same grade at school. Then I sit back and watch while they form romances, friendships and enemies. Sometimes they come up with really unexpected combinations.

I do the window/sink combo too

I always check off the need freetime aspiration benefits ASAP

I don't use most aspiration rewards but I love the elixir of life. I used to have 2 Sims share a bottle now I think i'll let each Sim have a bottle to themselves, just one. I want to extend my Sims life enough to give them time to do things and play with them but not make them immortal, so one bottle per Sim is my strict limit Likewise i'll use the kibble of life for pets.
Oh and I will use the smartmilk. I've used the thinking cap before but don't think i'll be using that again, just a personal preference.

The others I rarely if ever use, if I do there has to be a good reason for it.

batbox, visitor controller, InSim's cash register, Sim Manipulator (now that i have it) and ACR will be taken out right away, though I sometimes forget to spawn the ACR and now i'm starting to use anything that can be used as decor, as decor, like the visitor controller and Sim Manipulator (which I've found out satisfies the buy a sculpture want). The rest just go in an easily accessible place.

I tend to need to "makeover" nearly everyone before I can enjoy playing. As a result, I haven't actually played my Megahood since I reinstalled. In my custom hoods, I tend to grab visitors and passersby to make them over because I usually can't stand the sight of them...all plain and stuff.

Another thing i'm now noticing I do since i'm making the Worthington Mansion is I leave rugs and paintings for last. Once I do everything else in a house then i'll go through and add rugs and then i'll go through and add paintings.

I like doing it this way. Not sure why but it makes me happy.

I don't care if they are sloppy or neat, if any sim goes to use the toilet and there's an option to clean - it. gets. cleaned. Same with the shower.
All sims get makeovers, some get many.
For diverse genetics, every time I download a new skin or eye set, I introduce a new family into the hood.
I have my sims change clothes twice every season from teen-adult
I let secondary aspiration points go to waste
I lock a want a day to see if I can reach it, two if they went to UNI and one will be a longer term goal.
If I like a sim enough and they have an attainable aspiration I will have them work toward perma-plat. Otherwise I don't bother.
I play in loose rotations and this has resulted in some sims I don't like playing becoming immortal and living like recluses off in the shady corners of the hood.

Ideally you shouldn't do that. One of the main purposes of the batbox (as Pes originally made it) was to provide a means of regaining control of the menu buttons if there was a major game glitch and you got locked out of menu controls. It is a debug tool after all (I know we don't use it like that most of the time but it is - it's meant to be for use in an emergency - that's why it has the bat signal).

It has an option to force open the save and exit menu. If you get into a situation like that, saving is probably not a good idea but it does avoid the necessity of a hard reboot and allow for an orderly exit from the game. That is to say, you can close the game normally and avoid the risk of force-crashing it and potential file corruption. The original and main point of the batbox was to allow for that - it works when everything else is frozen out. Putting it in an inventory will make it inaccessible in that situation.

@maxon , I had thought about that and I knew it was a risk. It could also become inaccessible if the sim dies unexpectedly or has to be temp deleted due to an error. I do have the Sim Manipulator installed now and one of it's options is to re-enable the save, neighborhood, build mode, buy mode, and exit game buttons. So it should, hopefully, not be such a risk to keep the Batbox tucked away.

[QUOTE=simsfreq]Aspiration tokens?

I choose everything visual - walls, floors, furniture, clothing - on a counting system

I count, too, but mine's OCD

Saturday's are make over days at my houses. Everyone gets new hairstyle, and other aspects to create a new look. Then they get to shop. I have Christianlov's Gussy up function, so everyone gets new clothes. I tell them it's because the season is about to change and they need proper clothes for it.

Objects that I include on most lots: batbox, visitor controller, paladin's season controller, ACR's controller, and simblender. Batbox usually goes in the attic or under the foundation, but in some houses I've place used moveobjects to place it in/under an end table (the edges stick out so I can still select it, but it's not as noticeable in a corner). Visitor controller often becomes oleander, simblender is a hydrangea, and ACR becomes a rose bush - sometimes I make them all the same sort of bush for the purposes of symmetry in a garden and then I just have to click each until I find the one I want. If the teleporter cat is on the lot, it's near an outer wall, a few tiles away from the front door.

Sinks and desks go under windows, while easels and drafting tables go beside windows, turned so that the light from the window would fall on the working surface.

I look at the interest panel while children age to teens and pause the game as soon as I see the interests change - I like to use the new interests to influence the aspiration I choose, even if it's just to eliminate fortune as a choice because the sim has no interest in money. I frequently give them a secondary aspiration before they've rolled a LTW, but not always. Very few of my sims lack a secondary aspiration.

I often cancel the "arrive" action when my sims go to community lots - why waste time walking to the phone when I want them to do something else?

When toddlers are bathed, I max their fun - bath time should fill fun for most toddlers, not drain it.

Toddlers learn their skills if they want to, even if their parents don't want to teach them or the parents are otherwise fairly neglectful.

For the first 7-8 years of play I used every cheat code and items you could get but now I play mostly vanilla game with only adult Maxis Match skins and all the items that could have been bought from the Sims 2 Store plus all the "Essential Mods" for cleaner game play for http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=532696 .

Wow, I don't think I could ever go back to vanilla.

I don't think I could stomach vanilla tbh. My game's so heavily modded that going back to normal would be weird.

Playing a "vanilla" Sims game one word for me is NEVER.

I wonder if someone could make a global mod to make that happen. I know I'd use it (and also shove children in there).