Sims 3: How to Bulldoze a Lot

To bulldoze a lot in The Sims 3, click the “…” options button in the lower-left corner, choose Edit Town, select the Bulldoze tool on the Edit Town panel and click the lot. If a household lives there, the game makes you evict them first, and they wait on the clipboard until you move them somewhere else. This guide covers the full method, what bulldozing a second time does, how to keep a copy of the house, and the mistakes that cost players whole families.

Everything here is base game. No expansion pack is needed, and the steps are the same on PC and Mac.

Step by Step: Bulldozing From Edit Town

Bulldozing is not part of Build Mode in The Sims 3. It is an Edit Town tool, which is the town-level editor that also moves households, places lots and edits community buildings.

1. From Live Mode, click the “…” button in the lower-left corner of the screen to open the options menu.
2. Choose Edit Town. The camera pulls back to the map view and the Edit Town panel opens.
3. Pick the Bulldoze tool from the panel (the bulldozer icon).
4. Click the lot you want to clear and confirm the prompt.

The house, landscaping and every object on the lot are removed, and you are left with an empty lot of the same size. You can then enter Build Mode on it from Edit Town and start fresh, or place a lot from your library on top of it.

Community lots such as parks and shops can be bulldozed the same way. Be careful with lots that have a special function in your world: the lot remains, but whatever made it useful (a fishing pond, a gym, a library) goes with the building.

Bulldozing a Lot Where Sims Live

You cannot bulldoze an occupied home directly. When you click an occupied lot with the Bulldoze tool, the game asks you to evict the household first. Evicted Sims go to the clipboard at the bottom of the Edit Town screen, where you can drag them onto another lot.

Here is the part that catches people out. Community documentation for the game warns that if you leave Edit Town while a household is still sitting on the clipboard, that household is deleted. The game does show a warning before you leave, so read it rather than clicking straight through. Move the family into a new home first, or deliberately let them go.

If the household you are evicting is your active family, move them into their new house before you bulldoze the old one. Our guide to asking a Sim to move in covers merging households if you are consolidating families at the same time.

Bulldozing Twice: Removing the Lot Itself

Bulldozing a built lot leaves an empty lot behind. According to community documentation, bulldozing that empty lot a second time removes the lot from the world entirely, freeing the ground for decorations or a differently sized lot.

That is permanent in the save. If you later want a lot there again, Edit Town has tools for placing new empty lots (added in patch 1.12, per community patch history), but some player reports say custom worlds with uneven terrain can refuse to accept a new lot in the same spot. On a custom world, save before you delete any lot outright.

Keep a Copy Before You Flatten It

A bulldozed house is gone from that save, so if there is any chance you want it back, save it to your library first. In Edit Town, click the lot with the select tool and choose the option to save it to the library. The house then appears in your library bin, where you can place it on any empty lot of the same size or larger, in this save or another.

The same applies to households. If you plan to delete a family on the clipboard, saving them to the library first means you can bring them back later with their appearance and traits intact.

Common Problems and Fixes

• The Bulldoze option is greyed out. Make sure you are in Edit Town, not Build Mode. Some locked lots (tombs, ports and similar special lots) cannot be edited unless unlocked; per the community cheat list, the enableLotLocking on cheat, typed after testingCheatsEnabled true, lets you unlock them. Our guide to enabling cheats explains the console.
• The lot still shows on the map. That is expected after a first bulldoze: you have an empty lot. Bulldoze again if you want the lot gone completely.
• A Sim is stuck on the lot. Bulldozing will not fix a frozen Sim. Use the resetSim cheat from our reset guide first.
• Objects will not delete in Build Mode. If you only want to clear a few stubborn objects rather than the whole lot, the moveObjects on cheat removes most placement limits. Use it carefully, because it can also delete Sims and the mailbox.

For renovations rather than full rebuilds, rotating furniture into a new layout is often quicker. Our guide to rotating objects covers the free-rotation trick with the Alt key.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need an expansion pack to bulldoze a lot in The Sims 3? No. Edit Town and the Bulldoze tool are part of the base game, so any version on PC or Mac has them.

Will bulldozing delete the Sims who live there? Not immediately. The household is evicted to the clipboard, but it is deleted if you leave Edit Town without moving it into a house, so place them first.

Can I undo a bulldoze? There is no undo button for it. If you did not save the lot to your library first, the only way back is to quit without saving and reload your last save.

Why is there still an empty lot after bulldozing? The first bulldoze clears the building and objects. Community documentation says a second bulldoze on the empty lot removes the lot itself.

Can I bulldoze community lots? Yes, from Edit Town, the same way as homes. Just remember the lot loses whatever venue function its building provided.

For more help with the game, head to our Sims hub, which collects every Sims 3 guide we have written.