Experiences on redoing island?

[Berrymia]

So I’m currently thinking to change my theme from cottage core to kiddiecore. But I don’t wanna reset because I wanna keep my DIYs etc.
So I was thinking to just rework everything! Meaning house placements, decorations, terraforming etc.
Did anyone do this before? How did you do it? Do you recommend it? Did you regret it?
I’m low key scared to redo my entire island but at the same time I’m bored lol. I’ve had this island since release day so I’m quite attached to it. But a change would be nice.
So I’m thankful to hear about your experiences/ progress!

 

[JellyBeans]

I've never completely destroyed my entire island so I can't really comment on that, but I have definitely redone very large chunks of my island at a time which in my mind is slightly more bearable because it means you don't have a completely blank slate (could be an advantage or disadvantage, depends on your personal decoration style) and I would absolutely recommend it.
a few months ago I moved all my villager houses onto the beaches and totally built the neighbourhood from the ground up, and I was ten times happier with what I ended up with. and more recently I tore down my entire entrance and some parts off to the left and rebuilt that, and again I was so much happier with the results. by doing it in smaller chunks it's definitely more bearable and not so overwhelming, but also since you're redoing your entire island you may find that having your old style in areas could demotivate you.
you could always start with just redoing a small area and see how you feel afterwards! no matter how you end up tackling it, good luck!

 

[JKDOS]

I've done it almost nonstop since April, and just finishing up again after tearing down last week. The tearing down part is the hardest as you will have to remove hundreds of trees, items, flowers, shrubs, fences, etc.

The only regret I've ever really had was my very first build back in the beginning of April, but it was a terrible idea, and everyone is different.

Some advice

• If you're serious about redoing your island theme/layout, the best advice is to just go for it. I think starting is the hardest part.
• You might want to try TT'ing to a more enjoyable hour or day too. Like to a day without snow, an hour with your favorite hourly track, or a rainy day.
• If you're planning on keeping most your flowers and shrubs, move them to a location you're not working with, such as the beach.
• Carry a trashcan with you as you may decide to discard most of your flowers. I discard almost all of mine because I know they will begin multiplying again anyways.
• Carry a DIY workbench to repair your shovel now and then.
• Move anything you don't need from your inventory to your house to clear room. Things like fishing poles, bug nets, wands, slingshots (if you have the balloon achievement already) , diving suits, etc. I would only carry shovel, axe, ladder, vaulting pole, and customization kits along with the DIY table and trashcan.
• One other thing is just take it slowly and give yourself time to experiment with things, so how you like it before making it permanent and then deciding later you want to change it.

For reference, my very first terraforming job. The only one I regret. (The houses and campsite were yet to be moved)

 

[Sharksheep]

I wouldn't get rid of everything completely because it's really overwhelming looking at an empty flat island. My island hasn't changed much since last summer with half of it decorated and half of it not. I decided in December that I wanted to redo one neighborhood that hasn't changed. I don't have any idea for it at the moment other than it needs to change but I haven't removed anything yet and decided to focus on other areas until I can brainstorm a new idea.

I would try to focus on one or two areas at a time so you can just focus on two areas instead of the entire island. I've been focusing on one of the neighborhoods and when I get stuck, I'll work on my entrance. It's ok if it takes a long time to decorate an area and to do stuff. I was trying to make a little tea shop and I didn't like the placement undo everything and put villagers there instead. It's been about a month and I'm still pretty undecided about it but I rather take my time and enjoy the process.

 

[Bilaz]

I felt I was both overwhelmed by the size of the island yet inhibited by the shape of the current layout. So what I did was I flattened the top left corner completely, until I had a space that was big enough that I didn’t ‘notice’ the rest of the island, and I started working my way right! After that I’ll work on the row under it, etc.

 

[Stella-Io]

I'm doing this rn with my island.

The first thing I did was take grid paper, roughly map out my island and each acre and where stuff like the secret beach, Resident Services, my house, my alts house, villager homes, river mouths ect... are. For the homes I later moved each one to a new unused location, like an empty acre or the beach to get them out of my way. Then on a second piece of paper I wrote down all of the ideas I would like to incorporate onto my island. I kept in mind too that I wouldn't be able to all of the ideas I wanted to do cause I would run out of space.

I then roughly put down where I wanted each idea that I *really* wanted and how much space I think it would take up. I know that ideas tend to take up alot of space so I made the area for each idea bigger than what I thought it would end up to be. Sometimes I found myself having to condense, replace and re arrange idea spots so I could make them fit and all flow good.

Once I got that done I looked up designs that would fit my theme, assuming I didn't have them already.

I tore down each small area I wanted to work on at a time (in my case each acre since I divided my map like that) to prevent myself from feeling overwhelmed by having to tear ALL of it down at once. Also this saves some time demolishing cliffs and such. I removed any furniture, animal houses and cliffs/water. Then from there I mark out each thing, like where I wanted a shop to go, ect... I added fencing so I could work within that acre, seeing what space I have and started decorating from there.

 

[JemAC]

I've been in the process of doing this for about the last month and trying to get to an empty, flat island can be a bit off a hassle. Luckily I didn't have loads of outdoor furniture or fences to pick up when I started it but there were a lot of flowers and trees to move, I completely agree with the advice to take a waste bin and workbench around in order to throw away large amounts of flowers if needed and to craft more tools.
Also it may be helpful to have an idea on how many IGB you'd need to redo your island, obviously if you have quite a large amount of bells then it won't be too much of a problem but when I started flattening/emptying my island I demolished every incline and bridge on my island and relocated every building to one of the bottom corners of my island so it began to add up a lot. I'm at a point in my redecorating where I've got all buildings back to places that I'm happy with but I still need to build quite a few more bridges and inclines which are likely to cost a lot of bells.
When I began redoing my island I didn't really have an idea of what I was aiming for, I just knew that I wanted a change so flattened it and took it from there but I think having a plan in mind can probably be quite helpful or focusing just on one area at a time can make it easier. I'm happy TT'ing so went to the spring as I found it easier working on the island without the snow but if you don't TT and aren't keen on the snow it should be gone in a couple of weeks I think so that might be helpful. I also find that when I'm at a loss at what to decorate next or tired of terraforming then its useful to take a break either from decorating the island (sometimes I take a break and do some fishing or visit some mystery islands, often to villager hunt) or from the game in general. If you're stuck for inspiration at any point I've found looking at the dream address thread and visiting one of the dreams posted, visiting a random dream or looking at some island pictures on the forum or on Pinterest has been helpful.

Good luck with redoing your island if you decide to go for it

 

[sleepydreepy]

I did this once and loved it. I had a really messy island because I didn't really plan my terraforming very well (like transitioning between areas) and had a lot of awkward and dead spaces. I totally recommend redoing or flattening your island instead of resetting because you get to keep all your items, DIYs, and villagers! Plus if you run out of space to store your items while you terraform, you can always make a temporary side character and max their storage. Its an investment but I think its worth it, plus its really easy to get bells on this website (people love trading tbt for bells)

 

[Berrymia]

I just wanted to say thank you for everyone giving me such good advices. I’m redoing my island section for section now in rather small steps and I’m enjoying it a lot so far! Here’s my progress:

 

[Corrie]

I just wanted to say thank you for everyone giving me such good advices. I’m redoing my island section for section now in rather small steps and I’m enjoying it a lot so far! Here’s my progress:View attachment 356626View attachment 356627

That looks really cute so far!! Nicely done! I'm happy you're happy, despite being unsure at first!

 

[VanitasFan26]

From my experience it was rough because when I first played this game back March 2020, I was struggling to make idea of what I want my island to be. I was just going around making cliffs and rivers because I had no idea what else to think of. My island was in a complete mess I had trees cluttered everywhere, homes were scattered, and so many areas were empty. I was losing my mind because I had no idea how to make a good island. I go and see other people's islands and I did take inspiration from them. Eventually I made my island better thanks to them but then around May 2020 is when I started to feel unhappy with my island. So I decided to start over and go back to square one. Eventually I made it how I picture in my head that stood out. As the months went by I began tearing down my island and remaking from the way I see it. By October 2020 it was fully completed.

So my suggestion is to teardown your island, move all the buildings to the beach, and flatten it so that way you can get an idea of what you want to make. It depends on what Island layout you had and where your Resident Services is. If you feel like you don't like the layout the best way to do it is restart but in my experience mine was in a good spot where it was close to airport and not in the middle so I was okay with that.

 

[nightglow]

I don't recommend wiping your island. I did that on my last island more than once because I didn't learn the first time. It takes a long time and I feel like it can really burn you out or discourage you. You don't want the creative channel to get blocked. I suggest reworking a section at a time. Especially when it comes to river editing/rebuilding.

 

[JemAC]

I just wanted to say thank you for everyone giving me such good advices. I’m redoing my island section for section now in rather small steps and I’m enjoying it a lot so far!

Its looking really good so far, I love all the colours in this section and its nice to see the Festival items been put to good use