Game guide:Moving into a new house

The Sims
To move a family into a new, unoccupied house in the neighborhood:


 * 1) While in the neighborhood view, click the bulldozer icon in the button bar at the top of the screen. The cursor will change shape, and become a bulldozer.
 * 2) When the bulldozer icon is pointed at an occupied house, the message "Click to evict this family" will appear under the headshots of the family members. Clicking on the house will place the family in the Family bin. Build mode objects will remain, but all other objects will be sold for their current value.
 * 3) After the family has been evicted, the player will be asked whether or not to bulldoze the lot.
 * 4) Click on the bulldozer button to exit evict/bulldoze mode.
 * 5) Click the family icon in the button bar to go to the Family bin, then select the family and place it in an unoccupied house or on a vacant lot.

The Sims 2
There are two ways to move a family from their existing home.

From the neighborhood view:
 * 1) Open the Family Bin.
 * 2) Click on the "Move family" button.
 * 3) Click on an occupied house.
 * 4) When asked if you want to move the family to the Family Bin, say "Yes".

While playing the family:
 * 1) Click on the newspaper.
 * 2) Select "Find Own Place."
 * 3) Move the whole family with the active Sim.
 * 4) The Sims will be shown getting into a taxi and driving off.
 * 5) Go back to the neighborhood.
 * This does not appear to work if there is only one Sim in the family.

In either case, the family will be in the Family Bin, and can be moved into another home.

Build mode objects will remain. Outside of college sub-neighborhoods, all other objects will be sold for their current value unless they have been manually placed in a Sim's inventory. Within college sub-neighborhoods, all objects that have not been placed in a Sim's inventory will remain, even in a rented house.

Beginning with University, the family can also be moved into an occupied lot, if the total number of Sims in the moving family and the existing family is under 8.

The Sims 3
To move an active household's Sims and all their possessions into a new, unoccupied house in the neighborhood:


 * 1) The house that the player wants to move to must be unoccupied (no family name or house icon over it in Map view).
 * 2) In the active household, the player must click a phone or computer and choose Move. This brings up the Move dialog.
 * 3) In the right-hand "pane" of the dialog, one must click the House button at the bottom and select the desired house by clicking its icon on the Move Map view that appears. If
 * 4) The option (in the left pane representing the active household) to either pack up all of the current house belongings or to sell them all must be clicked next. (The contents of the fridge will not be moved.)
 * 5) Click the checkmark to complete the transaction.
 * 6) Once the Sims are at their new home, build mode is selected.
 * 7) With the sledgehammer, unwanted furniture/objects are removed.
 * 8) Along the middle between the tools puck and the graphics of different objects to buy/place are three "tabs" aligned vertically. The bottom one is clicked: "Family Inventory". All the stuff packed up from the old house is there ready to be placed in the new home.

Sometimes you may receive a challenge when moving in to a new house.

Surprisingly, if you select "Pack Furniture" and move, then move back into the old house, all the old furniture will still be there, even though the family supposedly took all the furniture. This was most likely done because of Story Progression to let new sims move into the house.