Can too much placed furniture count as "clutter"?

[Starboard]

I recently got my island to 5 stars by placing some furniture and was able to easily maintain it for about a week. Yesterday my friend traded me a ton of new furniture. I placed a lot of it around my island and now I've found that I'm only one "item" (e.g. a twig or a rock) away from 4 stars, and I don't think I was ever that close before.

I was just wondering if I really was living on the edge all this time or if all the furniture I placed does somehow count as clutter. Some of it is kind of haphazardly placed for the moment though I don't think I have that much compared to others.

 

[matt2019]

I don’t think that counts as clutter. Only when you drop it on the ground

 

[LilyLynne]

I am not an expert on this, but I have a lot of placed furniture outside and it doesn't count as clutter (as long as it is placed not dropped). I would think it is probably something else.

 

[Starboard]

Thanks for the replies, I'm thinking maybe I did just have a lot of items on the ground. It sucks because I was using it as decor but the game regards it as trash.

 

[bebebese]

More than 45 items per acre is considered clutter, according to the guide. Dunno if the game's code regarding that has been updated since the guide was published, though.

 

[visibleghost]

More than 45 items per acre is considered clutter, according to the guide. Dunno if the game's code regarding that has been updated since the guide was published, though.

oh wow, I had no idea. That sounds unfortunate for exterior areas like post offices, stores, markets or cafés which utilize a lot of placed items. Maintaining a five star island is sort of difficult, I had mine for two or three weeks and now I'm back at 4 stars because I have too many trees and too many dropped items.

 

[Starboard]

More than 45 items per acre is considered clutter, according to the guide. Dunno if the game's code regarding that has been updated since the guide was published, though.

Wait, for real? There's no way I have 45 items on my whole island, let alone an acre. I walk around it every day cleaning up and to my knowledge I only had 1 tree branch, 3 pinecones, a shell, a pumpkin, 4 coconuts and 5 bits of money dropped around, all for decoration. That was before I got rid of some of it because it was getting so hard to maintain the 5 stars.

Now I'm even more convinced something happened that plummeted my island rating. Maybe I have too many flowers after 2 days of rain?? Maybe it's my weeds? Maybe I just placed my furniture in a bad way? I have no idea.

 

[6iixx]

Maybe I just placed my furniture in a bad way? I have no idea.

when i was redoing my rocks, and making them spawn into an area i wanted for my rock garden, i had to place a billion mannequins down to force the rock spawns. everywhere you went there was a mannequin. i got 5 stars because of the mannequins. they don't take into account how you've placed furniture, just that it's been placed. you could literally have it all jumbled up and have it disordered and make no sense whatsoever in the placements, and it wont effect anything.

hope that helps you out a little bit.

 

[Starboard]

when i was redoing my rocks, and making them spawn into an area i wanted for my rock garden, i had to place a billion mannequins down to force the rock spawns. everywhere you went there was a mannequin. i got 5 stars because of the mannequins. they don't take into account how you've placed furniture, just that it's been placed. you could literally have it all jumbled up and have it disordered and make no sense whatsoever in the placements, and it wont effect anything.

hope that helps you out a little bit.

Oh ok, so it can't be that then. I wish I knew what was up but it's hard when all Isabelle says is that there's too much clutter. If the guide is right about the 45 items then that can't be the problem since I only had around 15.

 

[6iixx]

so i just read this on an online article, i hope it touches more on what you're looking for:

"Your island consists of 9216 tiles; each is about the same size space that it takes for your character to stand/sit in one position. Furniture is graded on an 8x8 block of tiles basis for your scenery score. However, in each block, if there are more than 45 or more tiles covered by furniture, the block will be considered as cluttered and cause a negative score against you.

Each block of tiles is scored individually, but you can use furniture that overlaps between two blocks, allowing it to count for both and effectively doubling your score for that particular item. This scoring system is for furniture only; plant life scoring does not conform to this."

 

[Starboard]

so i just read this on an online article, i hope it touches more on what you're looking for:

"Your island consists of 9216 tiles; each is about the same size space that it takes for your character to stand/sit in one position. Furniture is graded on an 8x8 block of tiles basis for your scenery score. However, in each block, if there are more than 45 or more tiles covered by furniture, the block will be considered as cluttered and cause a negative score against you.

Each block of tiles is scored individually, but you can use furniture that overlaps between two blocks, allowing it to count for both and effectively doubling your score for that particular item. This scoring system is for furniture only; plant life scoring does not conform to this."

Hmmm, that's interesting, thanks for finding that for me. I don't think I have that much stuff in such a small space but I'll take a look anyway and try moving things around.

 

[6iixx]

the entire things seems extremely confusing to me; i'm not sure how i can place a feckton of mannequins literally everywhere and achieve a 5 star rating without trying, but you're having issues with a clutter problem.

sometimes i wish isabelle would just get off her darn high horse :c

i wish you good luck!

 

[Starboard]

the entire things seems extremely confusing to me; i'm not sure how i can place a feckton of mannequins literally everywhere and achieve a 5 star rating without trying, but you're having issues with a clutter problem.

sometimes i wish isabelle would just get off her darn high horse :c

i wish you good luck!

I agree completely! I don't know what her standards are to be honest, she has a problem with clutter that I don't even have yet she never mentioned that some parts of my island are full-on infested with weeds

Thanks for your help!

 

[bebebese]

I might've confused things a bit, so to clarify:
45 items of placed (not dropped) items of furniture in an 8x8 grid = clutter
Dropped items (like DIY recipes) that aren't twigs or rocks, shells, mushrooms etc = litter

Isabelle doesn't like any litter when it comes to having a 5 star island, I think the most you can have is 15 "dropped" items.

 

[Starboard]

I might've confused things a bit, so to clarify:
45 items of placed (not dropped) items of furniture in an 8x8 grid = clutter
Dropped items (like DIY recipes) that aren't twigs or rocks, shells, mushrooms etc = litter

Isabelle doesn't like any litter when it comes to having a 5 star island, I think the most you can have is 15 "dropped" items.

Ohhhh ok, well I could push my rating back up just by picking up any of the things I mentioned (I never had DIYs on the ground) so I think they're all counted as litter? And before I pick it up isabelle calls it "clutter" so it's soooo confusing. Honestly I think after November and the rare musrooms I'll just give up on trying to keep my island 5 stars

It's such a shame though, the "litter" can make for great decor for a rustic vibe

 

[Barney]

I had a 5 star island for ages, but have dropped to 4 since I used acorns and pinecones to decorate my woods.

I thought naturally occurring items such as these didn't affect the rating, or is that only if they naturally spawn rather than being dropped?

 

[Starboard]

I had a 5 star island for ages, but have dropped to 4 since I used acorns and pinecones to decorate my woods.

I thought naturally occurring items such as these didn't affect the rating, or is that only if they naturally spawn rather than being dropped?

I just started a new day and I'm pretty sure all the things that spawn each day have no effect on rating, since I'm still at 5 stars with everything still on the ground. But I think if you shake down a tree or place things purposely that will count as clutter. I just counted all my purposefully dropped things and kept dropping things until I went down to 4 stars, and I could have 13. I have a feeling that limit used to be higher since I've recently had to pick up some coconuts and money that I didn't have to before but tbh I don't even know anymore. I've had such a busy time with the game recently I don't even trust my own memory

 

[Cherry Tree]

I've had that problem aswell. I was at 5 then whether it was before or not I dont know but I placed alot of Halloween stuff down and when I went for my rating it had dropped to 4. I've took all my halloween stuff down but my rating hasn't changed and I've been told I have too much clutter. I have kk slider anyway so I'm ok if it stays that way even though I did like seeing the flowers appear

 

[Purities]

i think only when you drop the item instead of place its counted as clutter

 

[-Blue-]

I never tried 'too much placed furniture' to see if it was clutter or not. I do remember throwing around campfires on my beach and just adding fences randomly and Isabelle almost gave me 5 stars. I wanted to test it out. So I would say it is fine. You don't even need rhyme or reason.

I would say though that it will probably give you a big case of lag where items will randomly appear out of nowhere or take forever to load in.