# PSA: Giving a lot of gift can remove items from your villagers' homes



## Ras (Jun 29, 2020)

I've been giving Audie a gift every day to build up friendship (with the aim of getting her picture)--things like iron lamps, hanging terrariums, and other things she won't display--and now she doesn't have any of her tabletop items. She no longer has a radio, a fruit basket, or coconut juice. I am assuming I filled up her inventory so that stuff got cycled out. I would never have given anything but non-native fruits had I known this would happen. And, I won't just gift her those items, because I am certain the game would not put them in the right place. The game doesn't know "fruit basket goes here," so the odds are she would replace a 1x1 piece of furniture if I tried.

Has anyone had this happen, or have you given tons of hanging gifts and their houses are left intact? I know there is a chance she'll cycle the furniture back in, but it's been at least two days and that stuff remains gone.


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## Uffe (Jun 29, 2020)

Can't you just buy items for her and give them to her as gifts to have her house be remade?


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 29, 2020)

This is a good resource for house information and house restoration.


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## Ras (Jun 29, 2020)

Uffe said:


> Can't you just buy items for her and give them to her as gifts to have her house be remade?



No, because there is no guarantee they will go in the same place. They might even replace furniture that exists.



Tehya Faye said:


> This is a good resource for house information and house restoration.



And I found the relevant info quickly:

"They will start removing old furniture once they reach their storage limit, notably wall-mounted furniture, furniture placed on surfaces, or other non-displayed furniture."

Dammit. Wish I had known. But, there might be hope:

"• Furniture that was originally on a surface will try to get placed in its original spot. By overflowing their storage to remove surface furniture you can make it very easy for villagers to place the originals in the right spots.
"

So, maybe you're right, Uffe.


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 29, 2020)

Best of luck in trying to restore her house!


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## Ras (Jun 29, 2020)

But, does that bug still exist where they will put two of an item in place?


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 29, 2020)

The only time I've seen a villager place two of an item at once was that one occasion where I time traveled backwards and then forwards again. I had given Fuchsia an item then, and I think the game registered it as being given twice due to the time traveling. All other times the villager has only displayed one.


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## Uffe (Jun 29, 2020)

Ras said:


> No, because there is no guarantee they will go in the same place. They might even replace furniture that exists.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I hope I am right that way you can restore Audie's house. I don't give my villagers any furniture or clothes. But one day Marshal gave me his coffee grinder, right out from his house. I told him he should keep it, but he gave it to me anyway. So I returned it to him the next day in person and he put it right next to his record player, which is where it's supposed to be. So all I can think of is giving Audie furniture that's going to be sitting on the ground and then giving her the items that sat on top of any furniture before.


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## Ras (Jun 29, 2020)

Uffe said:


> I hope I am right that way you can restore Audie's house. I don't give my villagers any furniture or clothes. But one day Marshal gave me his coffee grinder, right out from his house. I told him he should keep it, but he gave it to me anyway. So I returned it to him the next day in person and he put it right next to his record player, which is where it's supposed to be. So all I can think of is giving Audie furniture that's going to be sitting on the ground and then giving her the items that sat on top of any furniture before.



I'm going to do some TT to make this happen, so I'll either really screw things up or fix them! My only fear is that bug where two items appeared. You know what, I think I'll wait until the new update because maybe they fixed that. That'll give me time to order the tape deck. Thanks.

	Post automatically merged: Jun 29, 2020



Tehya Faye said:


> The only time I've seen a villager place two of an item at once was that one occasion where I time traveled backwards and then forwards again. I had given Fuchsia an item then, and I think the game registered it as being given twice due to the time traveling. All other times the villager has only displayed one.



Oh, okay. And I was thinking of TTing. Ha. I guess I'll be patient, since I have already ordered five things today.


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## Uffe (Jun 29, 2020)

Ras said:


> I'm going to do some TT to make this happen, so I'll either really screw things up or fix them! My only fear is that bug where two items appeared. You know what, I think I'll wait until the new update because maybe they fixed that. That'll give me time to order the tape deck. Thanks.
> 
> Post automatically merged: Jun 29, 2020
> 
> ...


What do you mean two items appeared? I'm curious as to what that is.


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## Quackattack (Jun 29, 2020)

Olivia's house is full of fish she's asked me to catch her. Maybe appropriate for a car, but doesn't quite fit with her decor.


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## Darcy94x (Jun 29, 2020)

Thanks for posting this! Will only gift wrapped fruit going forward!


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## Ras (Jun 29, 2020)

Uffe said:


> What do you mean two items appeared? I'm curious as to what that is.



A while back, people were saying they gave a villager one item--I think a nova light was the example--and they ended up having two of the nova lights in their houses. And other items were reported duplicated by others, too.


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 29, 2020)

Yeah, I remember seeing a post where somebody gave Raymond an item and three of them appeared in his house. XD It was a recurring thing for them - every time they gifted an item there'd be multiple of it the next day. I haven't run into any problems like that, thankfully. Maybe that particular bug was patched, and only a little quirk with time traveling remains.

Edit: This PSA is particularly relevant for villagers like Julian who by default have over 20 pieces of furniture in their homes. I don't even have the Libra or star garland diys, so I'd be out of luck trying to restore _that_ house. Which is a shame, because I'd like to give him a music player but if I regret it later there's not a whole lot of wiggle room before he starts taking down his star garland.


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## Uffe (Jun 29, 2020)

Ras said:


> A while back, people were saying they gave a villager one item--I think a nova light was the example--and they ended up having two of the nova lights in their houses. And other items were reported duplicated by others, too.


Oh, that's not good. Perhaps it would be a good idea to wait until after the next update like you said, just to be sure. At least I hope it's something Nintendo hasn't overlooked.


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## Ras (Jun 29, 2020)

Oooh, I just had a swell idea! I can wait until the game saves, gift her one thing while she's in her house, and see if it goes in place! If not, I can hard reset before the next save! It might not work since gift placement is not always instantaneous, but it might be safer than mailing all three as that document suggests.

Edit: She didn't place it. Went out and back in, still no. I guess I can just keep trying this for a while.


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 29, 2020)

Villagers won't display the item until the next day, though.


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## Ras (Jun 29, 2020)

Tehya Faye said:


> Villagers won't display the item until the next day, though.



Shaking fists! Gah, that was my favorite trick from New Leaf: keep giving them the gift until they put it in the right place, resetting until they did. Okay, I'm just going to: wait for the patch, gift them all at once via mail, hope for the best, get ready to mass mail hanging items if it doesn't work.


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## cocoacat (Jun 29, 2020)

Everything I give Marina gets duplicated. Two couches, two lamps... at least the placement is okay. Not sure I want to try to fix it.

Also has anyone managed to gift Flora something that replaces the campfire in her house? I hate it... but no matter what I gift her, she never chooses to replace it. I had her house almost perfect and then destroyed it trying to get rid of the campfire.


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## Ras (Jun 29, 2020)

cocoacat said:


> Everything I give Marina gets duplicated. Two couches, two lamps... at least the placement is okay. Not sure I want to try to fix it.



Now I know I'm waiting for the update in the hopes this is patched. This is ridiculous.


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 29, 2020)

cocoacat said:


> Everything I give Marina gets duplicated. Two couches, two lamps... at least the placement is okay. Not sure I want to try to fix it.



How long ago were those gifts given? I'm honestly curious about the factors that make an item get duplicated like that, if the duplication happened after the most recent patch and without any time travel.


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## Etown20 (Jun 29, 2020)

I have had some success restoring original furniture after giving other gifts, but it can take multiple tries. You can kind of predict where they *might* put it based on the furniture replacement guide

With Audie specifically, I had given her something that replaced the palm-tree lamp and the chalk menu. When I gave her a new palm-tree lamp, it returned to the right place. When I gave her the chalk menu, it put it in the wrong spot (in the designated free space), but then I gifted her something else to replace that. After I replaced the wrong chalk menu, I gifted her a new chalk menu and it put it back in the right spot.

At one point Lolly replaced her record player, so I gave her a new record player, and then she had two record players displayed at once. After I gifted her some other stuff, I got it back to one record player.


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## cocoacat (Jun 29, 2020)

Tehya Faye said:


> How long ago were those gifts given? I'm honestly curious about the factors that make an item get duplicated like that, if the duplication happened after the most recent patch and without any time travel.



I may have time traveled backwards after the gift.... I'm not sure. It happened with the last two things I gave her. But in that time, I gave things to Boots and Flora (much more often than Marina) and nothing got duplicated in their homes. This happened maybe a week or two ago?

I wish I had paid more attention to the details. The first was a soft serve lamp, and since two appeared (one in each corner) and it didn't look bad, I just thought it was a fluke. But then I gave her a couch, and it not only replaced the one she had, but added a new one in the empty space at the back of the room.

I could try changing her bed since I think she can only put one down.


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 29, 2020)

Yeah, I've also had pretty good luck with villager houses. I gave Maple a Retro Fan as a cute seasonal item to put in her free space, but the noise eventually bothered me so I gave her a Green Elephant Watering Can which replaced it. Apollo didn't put the red and black Record Box next to the Stereo free space like I thought he would, but instead under the lamp. Gave him a Mini Fridge for the other free space in the hopes of balancing things out...which he did put in the right place, but it looked _awful_. I crafted and customized a brown and red Acoustic Guitar, and mailed it to him since I already gave him some fruit that day, specifically recommending that he replace the Mini Fridge for it. In a stroke of most certainly complete coincidental luck he actually did.  His house looks pretty nice now.


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## Nefarious (Jun 29, 2020)

This happened with Julian when it was much too late. Now I no longer care for the state of his house. I’d have to burn through a lot of star fragments to fix the garlands.

If he finds a perma-home despite his    messed up walls, I’ll offer to craft them garlands with their materials if they wish to try and fix it. Feel bad, wish I knew about this problem much sooner. 

_Wish there was an option to reset homes with Isabelle._


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 29, 2020)

NefariousKing said:


> This happened with Julian when it was much too late. Now I no longer care for the state of his house. I’d have to burn through a lot of star fragments to fix the garlands.
> 
> If he finds a perma-home despite his    messed up walls, I’ll offer to craft them garlands with their materials if they wish to try and fix it. Feel bad, wish I knew about this problem much sooner.
> 
> _Wish there was an option to reset homes with Isabelle._



Is it confirmed that villagers in New Horizons keep their modified house interiors when moving to a new island? Everything I've read says only clothes are carried over, and the houses are set to their base default.


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## Ras (Jun 29, 2020)

NefariousKing said:


> _Wish there was an option to reset homes with Isabelle._



There were rumors a while ago about Happy Home functionality coming to the game, but I don't know if that was based on anything real or just wishful thinking. If it would let us put their homes back to exactly default (or let you turn a starter house into the proper house), I think a lot of people would be pretty happy with that. And I would turn Erik's home into his New Leaf home.


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## Nefarious (Jun 29, 2020)

Tehya Faye said:


> Is it confirmed that villagers in New Horizons keep their modified house interiors when moving to a new island? Everything I've read says only clothes are carried over, and the houses are set to their base default.



When I adopted Eugene he carried over fish, a laptop and a Newton’s cradle, which are not part of his original interior. Only starter villager’s houses get fixed like this. Wish it did with everyone else as well.



Ras said:


> There were rumors a while ago about Happy Home functionality coming to the game, but I don't know if that was based on anything real or just wishful thinking. If it would let us put their homes back to exactly default (or let you turn a starter house into the proper house), I think a lot of people would be pretty happy with that. And I would turn Erik's home into his New Leaf home.



I’m pretty sure it was wistful thinking. I haven’t heard any datamines info that suggested something like that. That would be great though, if they ever take up the idea.


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 29, 2020)

NefariousKing said:


> When I adopted Eugene he carried over fish, a laptop and a Newton’s cradle, which are not part of his original interior. Only starter villager’s houses get fixed like this. Wish it did with everyone else as well.



Ah, good to know. I wonder why they don't just reset all the houses to normal?


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## Ras (Jun 30, 2020)

As I was taking my shower, I was getting more and more convinced that I royally screwed up Audie's house, including removing the neon sign and palm tree. I shouldn't admit this, but I was getting fairly depressed. When I finally was able to get into the game again, those things are still there. Phew. But, I did notice her wall fan is gone. Now, the guide says you can easily replace that by giving her the same item of the same color. The problem is, the wiki says she has a *white* wall fan. In the picture, it really looks green to me:







I don't want to screw this up, so if anyone knows for sure. . . . My best recourse might be to just let the fan go. Because if I give her the wrong fan, it'll take yet another inventory slot. Of course, if I first fix the tabletop items, maybe it'll be less of a concern.


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## Gazer297 (Jun 30, 2020)

I used this method to clean up alot of my villagers homes.  I bombarded them with wall items to clear off all their surfaces.   Then gifted them their original items back.  I just really hate that nintendo did not take the time to program the villagers to put items correctly.   I kept giving Murphy some really nice items but he almost always put them backwards.  A wood stove facing the wall then a nice custom log couch facing the wall.


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## Ras (Jun 30, 2020)

Gazer297 said:


> I used this method to clean up alot of my villagers homes.  I bombarded them with wall items to clear off all their surfaces.   Then gifted them their original items back.  I just really hate that nintendo did not take the time to program the villagers to put items correctly.   I kept giving Murphy some really nice items but he almost always put them backwards.  A wood stove facing the wall then a nice custom log couch facing the wall.



Do you mean he puts them wrong with this method, or this method is how you fixed that?


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## Tehya Faye (Jun 30, 2020)

Gazer297 said:


> I used this method to clean up alot of my villagers homes.  I bombarded them with wall items to clear off all their surfaces.   Then gifted them their original items back.  I just really hate that nintendo did not take the time to program the villagers to put items correctly.   I kept giving Murphy some really nice items but he almost always put them backwards.  A wood stove facing the wall then a nice custom log couch facing the wall.



Yeah, that's why I'm really careful about what kinds of stuff I give them. Nothing would bug me more than seeing a couch the wrong way around, so stuff like plants or things that look the same both sides is ideal. It doesn't always look right, but at least they can't place it incorrectly. I'm a bit amused by Phoebe's new rotating Portable Record Player, though. Every day she just turns it 90 degrees and I've accepted it as a silly quirk.


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## Gazer297 (Jun 30, 2020)

Ras said:


> Do you mean he puts them wrong with this method, or this method is how you fixed that?


Oh no the method cleared up objects on surfaces.  So alot of my villagers put stuff I gave them awkwardly on surfaces.  To get rid of all that I gifted them wall stuff which will get rid of everything on surfaces but not stuff placed on floor.  To fix the stuff placed on the floor that they put backwards I have to gift them another item the same size and hope they get it right.  It is alot of trial and error. They can hold 32 items in their storage including the items currently in their house.  So you have to gift them quite a few items to cycle through everything.   I have 3 characters and with mailing 5 items each I can clear their surfaces in 2 days.


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## Ras (Jun 30, 2020)

Well, the fruit and coconut are in the right place, but the tape deck is on the ground next to the table. I'm inclined to just live with it.


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## Nefarious (Jun 30, 2020)

Ras said:


> As I was taking my shower, I was getting more and more convinced that I royally screwed up Audie's house, including removing the neon sign and palm tree. I shouldn't admit this, but I was getting fairly depressed. When I finally was able to get into the game again, those things are still there. Phew. But, I did notice her wall fan is gone. Now, the guide says you can easily replace that by giving her the same item of the same color. The problem is, the wiki says she has a *white* wall fan. In the picture, it really looks green to me:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I don't have Audie, never had her, but I went and looked at multiple screenshots of her house, and it does seem like the original color is in fact green.


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## Ras (Jun 30, 2020)

NefariousKing said:


> I don't have Audie, never had her, but I went and looked at multiple screenshots of her house, and it does seem like the original color is in fact green.



Thanks for doing that. I got the green fan and I'll give giving it to her a go.


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## Barney (Jun 30, 2020)

How great would it be if we had the ability to arrange the furniture in villagers' houses!?


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## Skandranon (Jun 30, 2020)

Yeah I started out giving random stuff I didn't want to villagers, then I saw the anatomy model in whitney's house and realized I should be more careful what I give out


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## wanderlust// (Jun 30, 2020)

NefariousKing said:


> This happened with Julian when it was much too late. Now I no longer care for the state of his house. I’d have to burn through a lot of star fragments to fix the garlands.
> 
> If he finds a perma-home despite his    messed up walls, I’ll offer to craft them garlands with their materials if they wish to try and fix it. Feel bad, wish I knew about this problem much sooner.
> 
> _Wish there was an option to reset homes with Isabelle._


That last part would be such a dream. Fixing villager homes is such a pain, I’d rather shell out a few thousand bells than hack away at my sanity trying to fix the house myself.


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## Mick (Jun 30, 2020)

I'm really glad I stumbled on this thread because I had actually given up on improving Hornsby's home when he refused to replace any of his original furniture with the things I gave him (his original home is a literal mess) and instead he kept adding and changing only the furniture that I did give him. It made me pretty sad that one of my favourite villagers would be stuck with his house so sub-optimal...

I actually just asked this in the FAQ thread but I suppose this answers my question so thank you for this information, I guess this means it's time to start ordering him more stuff!


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## Ras (Jul 1, 2020)

Okay, guys. I think the reason she put the tape deck on the ground is because I gave her a silver and I guess her original is white. She didn't put the wall fan, so I assume it should be white like the wiki says, too. So, very important question: should I risk giving her the correct tape deck? Right now, her house is 99% correct, just missing the wall fan and the tape deck is on the floor next to the rattan end table it's supposed to be on. The guide says they will try to put the correct items in the correct places. Should I try giving this tape deck or am I going to be really sorry? 
I believe the tape deck is now in what's called a "room marker," and this sentence scares me:

"It is currently unknown if villagers can completely remove furniture from room markers, the current assumption is that it's not possible."

Maybe I should just live with the tape deck on the floor. I hate it, but I could hate what happens even more.


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## Ras (Jul 1, 2020)

Sigh. I sent the proper tape deck this time and it's in place, but the other one is still on the floor next to it. Now, I just really have to live with it. I wish I had paid more attention to it being a white tape deck the first time and this would all be right.


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## PemaGrey (Jul 1, 2020)

Dude I quit giving furniture to my villagers bc of this and the fact they started freezing in town square and getting stuck in changing clothes cycle. And yes things vanished from their homes, too. You can still get photos by doing favors for them.. i got one today for catching a fish they asked for. No more iron wall lamps! Lol


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## Ras (Jul 3, 2020)

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I can now. I didn't live with it. I let Audie go and found her on a mystery island tour. LOL. It only took 44 tickets, but my baby is back. And yes, I understand how lucky I was that it took so few. I was pondering making a TBT trade for 200 more when I found her. So learn from me and don't give them too many gifts and if you do, make *sure* you give them back the right things. In this case. white tape deck=good. Silver tape deck=bad.


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## Anblick (Jul 4, 2020)

I don't mind the inside of my villagers' houses *too* much, honestly. I definitely try to give them stuff that won't bug me if they place it, but I try and focus my energy *way* more on their exteriors since I have so much more control over that, and I see it so much more! Plus, like.. they can make weird choices if they want, I guess? Hahaha that sounds super lame but I don't want to just MAKE them do every single thing I want them to do, it wouldn't really feel like having a lil community with citizens to me if I could mandate all of their decorating even if they sometimes make terrible choices XD


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## John Wick (Jul 4, 2020)

I only give them coconuts.

Wolfgang gave me his pic a couple of days ago from just that.


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## Ras (Jul 4, 2020)

Anblick said:


> I don't mind the inside of my villagers' houses *too* much, honestly. I definitely try to give them stuff that won't bug me if they place it, but I try and focus my energy *way* more on their exteriors since I have so much more control over that, and I see it so much more! Plus, like.. they can make weird choices if they want, I guess? Hahaha that sounds super lame but I don't want to just MAKE them do every single thing I want them to do, it wouldn't really feel like having a lil community with citizens to me if I could mandate all of their decorating even if they sometimes make terrible choices XD



That‘s the more chill way to play, but I just like the original houses. If we ever get to be Happy Home designers and can fix the most egregious placements, I might get less stressed over it. 



John Wick said:


> I only give them coconuts.
> 
> Wolfgang gave me his pic a couple of days ago from just that.



That’s definitely what I’m doing from now on!


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## Anblick (Jul 4, 2020)

Ras said:


> That‘s the more chill way to play, but I just like the original houses. If we ever get to be Happy Home designers and can fix the most egregious placements, I might get less stressed over it.


And I mean no judging either, that is so totally fair too. It would be really nice if maybe similar to the frequency of villager requests for catchphrase changes, maybe they'd request you to evaluate their house... and then you could pick an item that you could replace? That would return *some* control to the player but still maintain some of the random elements that I was talking about too.


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## Ras (Jul 4, 2020)

Anblick said:


> And I mean no judging either, that is so totally fair too. It would be really nice if maybe similar to the frequency of villager requests for catchphrase changes, maybe they'd request you to evaluate their house... and then you could pick an item that you could replace? That would return *some* control to the player but still maintain some of the random elements that I was talking about too.



Yes! If they just had the old mechanic of visiting a house and them saying, "I bet you see something you like," and then you could buy it, I could have removed that stupid second tape deck. I bet something like that will happen in the future, but who knows how far into the future.


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## Anblick (Jul 4, 2020)

Ras said:


> Yes! If they just had the old mechanic of visiting a house and them saying, "I bet you see something you like," and then you could buy it, I could have removed that stupid second tape deck. I bet something like that will happen in the future, but who knows how far into the future.


I wish they just had that anyway, but Nintendo is probably just completely onto my dreams of amiibo-ing somebody dumb with great furniture, STEALING IT ALL, and amiiboing them back out again asap. XD


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