I like hiring a maid. The only sims that don’t have one are the ones that just moved in somewhere and can’t afford one (I have expensive NPCs from Maty so my maids cost §50 + §90 per hour), or witches who can summon a servant at any point. I don’t like my sims wasting time cleaning, if they decided to do it autonomously I cancel the action. (No idea why they would do that if they have a maid, I certainly wouldn’t if I had one, but well I’m lazy and mess isn’t that bad as long as nothing stinks ) I have the perfect plants mod so I don’t need a gardener (however when I tried to switch to tend inaccessible plants mods I did hire a gardener, but then found out that I’d have to fix a huge amount of CC plants if I wanted them to overgrow/dry and decided it’s not worth the effort, so I switched back to perfect plants). I have a few families with a butler (but not in Strangetown in which I’m currently playing), but I rarely hire him, maid is enough. I don’t feel the need to hire any others, my sims fix broken things and get rid of roaches if I have any themselves.

It depends from family to family. When I had apartment life did I hire a butler to my Family Reiger as I call them the king family. Often their kids though got maids and gardeners instead.

As of now I have gardener on since giant garden and maid on because 6 kids for that family xD

The minor families "richies" have maids and gardeners and nanny if children
The less gets maids
And the poor not and no I don't do the kingdom challenge xD I just like having a king family...

Depends if the romance sim has the "Service WooHoo" want or not.

I tried a gardener once - got very, very, very annoyed with him walking to one corner to tend one plant, then all the way across the lot to tend another, then all the way back to near the first plant to tend the next, then ... well you get the idea! Magic shears are now on all my lots. (IRL I loath gardening, so see no need to force my sims to do it ... which reminds me I need to cut the grass, I can no longer see the cat as it walks across the garden!)

Nannies spend more time burning cakes and playing SSX3 than looking after the little ones, so I also hate them (changed the education career hours so teacher mums can drive their off-spring to school with them)

Maids ... my Simmies tidy up after themselves a) it gets cleaning skill and b) that's what I have to do!

Repair people - nah! I like to see my simmies fry if they mess it up! Electric shocks rarely kill as I like my Sims to be a long way from aspiration failure

I once tried a live-in au-pair, but she was framed for the murder of the mother (by the daughter ...)

If there are any others I don't play with those either!

I usually hire a repairperson pronto because I can't stand broken appliances, even when some sims have high mechanical points- they may too busy to do it so they call the repair shop. I'll call a gardener if they have a big garden. I've downloaded a lot of residential lots it's too much work to keep the landscaping looking nice with the sims that live there and often have overgrown hedges and bushes and tons of leaves if not for the gardener. Rich families get a maid, toher wise I try to hold off to build up any cleaning skill points they need for a job. Nannies are only called in for desperate times, like if the sim has no other person that can come over and watch the kidlets but NEEDS to go to work. All the other service NPC's are claled rarely if at all.

I heard bartender are useless, so it would be good idea to fenced-off a bar from people (so they don't automously ignore the bartender by mixing drinks instead) before hiring one.

I actually hire all of them, but when the necessary one is needed while my household is busy to do the corresponding chores/tasks.

The service NPCs are there to help me, not the sims. If no maid shows up, I'm the one who has to go round saying, "Clear up plates. Clean surface. Clean sink. Clean shower. Clean bath. Make bed. Recycle old newspaper. Pick up books." Yeah, that gets old pretty quickly.

Much the same applies to the gardener. My Nature sims are pleased to compost, fertilise, plant, tend and water. That all builds their gardening skills. But then the shrubs need trimming, the fruit trees need spraying and tending, the leaves need sweeping and collecting. I wear out long before my sims do. They get maids and gardeners as soon as funds allow.

In my current hood there is no way to have service people from outside. Klara Vonderstein is living in heavily guarded lonely place and Herbert is doing all repair works.
Despite being elder Herbert is still Head of SCIA. Klara was investigative repoter what she wanted to be from very start and when she was promoted to top of career she left at the same day. So all little things around a house she is doing by self . The only outsaiders are pair of wolves and mailwoman and newspaper girl, When Klara was in uni agents proposed her this place and job and said these two are their agents too. Klara asked about drivers but agents said they are not and is better not to talk with them.

Just curious has anyone ever hired obedience trainer?

Depends on both the household and the neighborhood. Nobody gets a maid or a nanny in Strangetown; the town is just too small.The people with big yards can hire a gardener, because there's always some guy with a truck and some tools. They can't order food delivered, either - Olive killed them all off. They can call the repairman, but most people try to fix it on their own first. When you're restricting skilling to natural gains through practice and rolling wants, you don't pass up a chance for skill-building! The Beakers would love to have service sims to simvac, but have settled for letting an LFT graduate room for them in exchange for babysitting and light housework. Experiments will come in time...

In Widespot, the two rich newcomer families hire maids; the original families take care of things themselves because that's what you do. Nobody there has needed a nanny yet. The Manns always call a repairman, the Harts only after they've tried to fix it themselves. The difference there is that I think of Val as growing up in a trailer park and fixing things and doing yardwork for his mom was part of his male role, but he has this Thing about His Women cleaning (I swear, every time Mary starts he is all up in her face till the cleaning drops out of the queue and she consents to be canoodled), so hiring a maid to prevent it makes sense. The Manns hire a gardener as a matter of course.

In Drama Acres, it's entirely a culture + economic call. The richest folks in town, the Munnys, have a maid, but she cannot keep up with her finicky Virgo employers' standards! Ernest especially cleans up after her. Sage Ann prefers to do her own gardening. Ernest doesn't mind calling a repairman and he tips big, but his first instinct is to fix things himself - and the boys were raised with a "you broke it, you fix it" rule. The original Estics do for themselves in all things, but Madge's second family, the one she had with Mr. Big, always call repairmen and have a maid and a gardener because what else is the point of having money, but to get somebody else to do the drudgework. The Harris Hawkins family is plenty rich enough to afford a maid, but Gabriella wants to max all skills and doing her own cleaning advances that goal daily. When Pigeon Hawkins was a teen she hired a maid for the family, but after she came back from college she was let go - the family was in better order by then. Most of the Upslope families have the "you broke it, you fix it" rule, and the idea of having a lot of superfluous landscaping is alien to them. Nannies are rare - the Newsons had a horrible experience with one and all of them are nannyphobic, and the Upslope families prioritize homelife over work and are only just now reaching a point where the idea of hiring a nanny is not puzzling and off-putting.

The GS Uberhood Rhett had a nanny from the time Sandy left him alone with the first kid, because he needed one; but he lived in apartments so he didn't need a gardener, and nobody was ever bothered enough about mess in his household to hire a maid. When he finally got his own house and went to live in Widespot at the end of the challenge he hired both a maid and a gardener, because the kids and their free labor were starting to thin out, and he finally had a teen or two who cared how the house looked when she invited people over.

I will usually hire a maid & a gardener, and a Nanny. This is all.
The gardener will only be hired once my sims, including children, will have mastered their gardening skills, or about to. otherwise, they will tend to it and practice.
For the maid, it's pretty much the same, depending on the sim I am playing, of course. I will send children to clean up bathrooms, making beds etc. I love to think that they are learning...And there is the Nanny, that no one loves..lol Poor Nanny. I found one that I liked. I am always using her..installing, re-installing the game, I drag her along.

I always like the butlers for my rich sims. They do a bit of everything, although never in a logical order. This amuses me but makes my sims very cross!

I use the gardeners a lot in families were everybody works. Also use the maid frequently.

The one I use most often is probably the repairman.

Try to avoid the nanny as much as possible due to them usually being rather stupid, but they are sadly necessary sometimes



I have never actually used the butler, really have to do that one of these days.

They aren't as funny as the Sims 1 butlers though- those used to raid the house owner's nectar bar when he wasn't looking!

Do they need their own bedroom like in TS3, them Butttlers?

None, I don't hire service sims any longer. I play an integrated hood so playables have to do all things. I use Christianlov's transport mirror to bring them over, do the job then use the wallet controller to pay them. As of now I have a playable maid, gardener, exterminator and repair man. I also have a sim who is a taxi driver and another who is a bar tender. I do not have a nanny and probably won't. For that sims either keep their kids with them , call a friend and use 'watch kids' or I send them to day care, again via the mirror.

I only hire maids if a sim rolls a want to hire a maid. Once a maid has been hired they tend to stay hired indefinitely (even if the sim who originally hired them has moved out).

I only hire repair people if a sim rolls a want to do so, with one exception: in my game every household has a Monique's computer, as I use them to take out loans, transfer money to others etc. If the computer breaks then a repair person is called (who then fixes not only the computer but also anything else which is broken, which can be very helpful at times!). If the computer is working but other things are broken but nobody rolls the want for a repair person, then the things will only get fixed if someone rolls a Mechanical skill want or a generic skill point want. Sometimes things can be broken for ages!

I hire a nanny if a sim rolls a want to do so, or if someone is needed to watch a household's babies/toddlers/children when there are no teens/adults/elders at home due to work commitments and there are no relatives or close friends in other households who could conceivably be able to come over and watch the kids (I have a mod which makes Watch Kids an option on residential lots as well as apartment lots). So nannies are quite rare in my game - many households have at least one unemployed adult/elder, as my sims only get jobs if they roll the want to do so and many never do, or don't roll the want for a job until their offspring are teens+. And lots of households have someone who they can invite over to watch their kids when they are at work - for example, when both Trent and Trisha Traveller are at work, their unemployed adult daughter Tina comes over to watch her half-alien half-sister Tallulah.

I don't hire gardeners as I have mods to ensure that shrubs and flowers don't require tending. I also don't tend to hire the other service sims - butler, bartender, pet trainer etc. I do use pizza and Chinese food delivery services, but generally not grocery delivery services.

Even when my sims can't quite fix something themselves, most of them figure, why hire a repairman when I have friends and influence points?

My Sims generally hire a maid if there are preschoolers on the lot, if they're living in the university dorms (I usually have a group of them there, so it's not just one student footing the bill), or if they roll a want for it.

They always call the exterminator, and the repair shop is called if an electrical appliance needs fixing, but only the wealthy call one for a plumbing repair - most take care of that themselves.

If all adult Sims in the household are working and they have a large garden, they might hire a gardener, but most seem to manage without.

I mostly try to avoid the nanny, but sometimes Sims run out of vacation time while there's still a preteen on the lot, so one Sim will arrange for her to Track Schedule. I don't have her come over while the parents are there - I did that once, and the poor exhausted mother was woken by one toddler screaming for his crib while the idiot nanny fed the other twin, who wasn't even hungry! Total waste of money.

I've never hired a bartender, and I've only tried the butler once, for Cassandra Goth. Useless idiot, forever cooking (and usually burning!) large amounts of food that nobody wants. I had to hire a maid as well, because he couldn't keep on top of things and the dining room was a stinking mess of dirty dishes, and then he popped up a complaint on a regular basis, insisting that he was perfectly capable of taking care of everything. I fired him in the end: it was easier having a gardener and maid.

I've also never hired the pet trainer, but I might have Michael Langerak (formerly Malcolm Landgraab) try it, as he's got three big dogs and works long hours.

Nannies, if both parents are working, or when they need a break.
Maids - depends on the family. Can they afford it and how much cleaning do they have to? Doesn't happen often, though. Sometimes I just move in an unemployed Sim to do that.
No gardeners - just enough fruit trees and veggies for the Sims to handle themselves (plus, of course, a gardening mod )
Butlers - no. (Unemployed Sim, maybe).
Bar tenders - only for really special parties, like the Mayor's Christmas bash.
Repair persons - yes, even Sims who can fix everything themselves may do so because there just isn't time....
In my military hood, though, there are no hiring service Sims - they are in the army now!

Maids - yes, essential in dorms. I consider it paying for a service. Some families can afford it, especially where all adult parties are working or they're just from a wealthy background.
Nannies - if I have to (and sometimes I have to)
Gardeners - yes, again wealthier families (they have the fanciest gardens anyway)
Butlers - only one for my poshest family. I've nerfed him with mods too. Not too fond tbh but he's good for answering the door in style.
Bartenders - never done it
Repair persons - certainly, if they can afford it.

I have playable sims who depend on service NPCs getting hired since I have a system of certain playables being maids and gardeners and so on and them getting hired means they get paid.

No, they go home at the end of the day.

Magic shears? *googles* Ah, magic shears from simslice! *downloads* I have been looking for something like this for ages, thank you soooo much for mentioning them! I don't use the perfect plants/gardens mods since mostly I like my simmies to do their own gardening, especially if they're nature sims. But if I decide to have an extravagantly landscaped mansion it can be way too much for the gardner plus butler to keep up with.

I had an object like this in original Sims that worked on a lot only basis, but after posting a WCIF for an object like that a while ago, nobody knew of one for Sims 2. So I am very happy to have this now! It even has cheeky messages and music, lol.

@rielynn71 you may like the garden sprinkler from there as well (top centre of page 12)

My Sims always get the exterminator for vermin infestations, and they always get the repairman for electrical faults. These are jobs for professionals; it's just not worth getting yourself killed trying to save a few Simoleons. Most Sims do their own plumbing repairs, but the Capps get the repairman for everything. I somehow just can't see Consort Capp unblocking a toilet himself.

A lot of Sims get the gardener because he/she does know how to look after Sim plants properly. They are very fussy and very easy to kill in inexpert hands. I once had a Sim (I think it was David Turner of New Desconia) plant two tiles of flowers beside his front door. Now in Real Life I have been taught that new plants should always be watered in, so I told him to water them. Half the flowers immediately died! So my Sims think, if you want a decent looking garden, you better pay the expert rather than try to muddle through on your own.

A maid? The Summerdreams have one in Veronaville -- that house is just too much to manage on your own. Of course Daniel Pleasant and Don Lothario in Pleasantview pay for a maid, but we all know they're both more interested in Kaylynn's "other services"! Actually the best way to keep your house clean for nothing is to have a Virgo child; my Moltkes will never need a maid with little Brigitte fussing around the house looking for things to clean! None of my Sims has yet entrusted their precious children to the tender mercies of a nanny -- they've heard too many horror stories from MTS about evil and incompetent nannies.

Bartenders have been hired for parties twice in my entire game, and nobody has yet required the services of the gypsy matchmaker. My promiscuous Romance Sims reckon they get any victim potential paramour they choose into bed within 12 hours without her help. Andrew is going to call her soon to buy her love potion. He knows fine he doesn't need it, but, as a knowledge Sim he's fascinated to find out what's in it and what it does. He's also, since the Monopoly Game Town contracts, got the money to waste on it.

This.
Well my current hood is fairly new so nosim has a NPC job at the moment.

It depends on the household's income or skill level or whether they throw a want to hire someone. Rich households get maids and sometimes a repairman depending on how much is broken. Sometimes they'll just buy a new appliance or shower rather than repair it. I used to hire gardeners but they were useless for large gardens so I got the perfect plants mod. Didn't know about the magic shears.
I hired a butler a couple of times but yeah he just kept cooking and ignoring everything else so he had to go. Bartender was useless.
I reluctantly hire nannies when needed - sometimes they're better than nothing.
Never hired the obedience trainer.
I've tried the matchmaker a few times but never been satisfied with the blind dates.
As for exterminators. I hire them after my sim has attempted to spray them all but the infestation is obviously too big for them to manage.