Isn't it funny, though, how so many of us do this with our sim houses? We base them on reality rather than what the sims actually require. I think back to my Baby Boomer house (or my Wishmasters, for that matter) and I can see so many things I could have done differently in designing a home to make it more practical for my sims, if less realistic.
Sims don't need dressers. They also don't need washing machines or dryers, or their own transportation of any kind.
Sims don't mind sharing a bedroom unless woohoo or a crying baby is involved.
Sims rarely all eat at once, so a formal dining area is pretty much useless.
Although most of us are familiar with bathrooms full of fixtures, I've found it helpful to separate the shower and the toilet in separate rooms, or even to have multiples of one or both in the same bathroom.
With the exception again of woohoo and of toileting and bathing, sims are happy to do everything outside, and they'll do those, too, with enough privacy. Unless you've got a Hates the Outdoors, walls are cosmetic unless required for an object (like a sink or smoke detector.) And you don't get the It's Dark moodlet outside.
So . . . the ideal house, if our sims could design one themselves, would be a large open yard surrounded by small rooms for the purposes of woohoo, bathing, toileting and containing infants and toddlers in cribs, and perhaps an additional large room to sleep in and keep the noise of TVs and stereos out.
The next time I attempt a challenge with a large family, they're absolutely not getting a house.
