To move a household in The Sims 2, either open the neighborhood view, select the family’s lot and use the move-out button to send everyone to the Family Bin, or have a Sim on the lot use a phone or computer to find their own place and pick who leaves with them. The first moves the whole family; the second lets you split one. This guide covers both, what money and objects come along, how to place the family again, and the Legacy Collection fix that stopped pets vanishing in transit.
Method 1: Move Everyone From the Neighborhood View
Save and leave the lot, then in the neighborhood view click the family’s house. The lot panel at the bottom of the screen shows the family, the lot value and a row of buttons; the one that matters here is the move-out button, which sends the household to the Family Bin (the panel on the left with the families waiting to be placed). The game asks you to confirm, because the lot’s contents are sold: the house’s value and every object on it are converted to simoleons and added to the family’s funds. Nothing physical travels, but the money does, which is why a family that moves out of a fully furnished mansion arrives in the bin rich.
To place them again, click the family in the bin and then click an empty residential lot or an unoccupied house. The family’s funds must cover the lot price. If they cannot afford anything, our money cheats guide closes the gap. Once placed, the family keeps its jobs, relationships, memories and family tree; only the address changed.
Method 2: Move Some or All Sims From the Lot
The phone and the computer both offer a move-out option (the phone lists it under its own menu, and the computer under Find Own Place, labelling aside). Choose it and a dialog lists the household; tick the Sims who are leaving and the amount of money they take, then confirm. The chosen Sims go to the Family Bin as a new household and the rest stay put, funds split as you set them. This is the route for a grown child leaving home, a divorce, or a newlywed couple starting their own lot, and the leavers keep whatever is in their personal inventories.
You then go to the neighborhood view and place the new household as in Method 1. If every Sim is ticked, the lot empties and its contents are sold exactly as before.
What Comes With Them
The practical rule: funds and inventory travel, furniture does not. Before either move, put anything precious into a Sim’s inventory from Buy Mode (drag the object onto the Sim’s inventory panel), including cars from Nightlife, career rewards and heirlooms. Pets from the Pets expansion are household members and move with the family. So do babies and toddlers, who are counted as members even though they cannot be selected on the phone.
If you want the house itself rather than the money, use the Lots and Houses Bin instead: the lot panel has a button that copies the lot, occupants excluded, into that bin so you can place it in another neighborhood. Moving a family to a different neighborhood entirely goes: move-out to the Family Bin, save, then the family is available to place only within that same neighborhood, so cross-neighborhood moves need the lot bin and a fresh placement. Package the family from the bin if you want to carry them further.
What the Legacy Collection Fixed
Moving was one of the early trouble spots in the January 2025 relaunch. The February 20, 2025 patch (#4) fixed “The dog Sim is missing from the household after moving to a lot,” and the first patch on February 4 fixed Sims disappearing “after the player moves to another lot or neighborhood.” The March 14, 2025 patch (#6) addressed a family travelling to a community lot with only the dog arriving. Verified against those notes, an updated Legacy Collection moves complete households; if a pet or child goes missing on an older install, updating is the fix, and Maxis notes that saves corrupted before a fix cannot be repaired afterwards, so keep a backup save before any big move.
One rule that never changed: do not delete a family from the neighborhood view to “move” them. Deleting Sims who have relationships and memories with other Sims is the classic route to neighborhood corruption in The Sims 2, and no patch changed that. Move them to the bin, or move them in with another household, but never delete.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my family keep their furniture when they move? No. Both moving methods sell the lot’s objects and add the value to the family funds. Put anything you want to keep into a Sim’s inventory first.
Can I move only one Sim out? Yes. Use the phone or computer move-out option on the lot and tick just that Sim; they leave as a new household with the money you assign.
Can a family move to a different neighborhood? Not directly from the Family Bin, which is per neighborhood. Copy the lot to the Lots and Houses Bin, or package the family, and place them in the other neighborhood.
Do jobs and relationships survive a move? Yes. Careers, friendships, romances and family trees are all kept; only the address changes.
What about a Sim at university? Students live in the campus sub-neighborhood and cannot be moved to the main neighborhood until they graduate or drop out. See our university guide.
For every other Sims 2 guide, including how to reset a stuck Sim after a bad move, see the Sims hub.