So what even are items 'laying around?'

[Spooky.]

Isabelle tells me all the time my villagers complain about items laying around - yet I had nothing laying around in it's leaf form any of those times.

My only guesses were because I had a bunch of DIY cards laying on the ground while I was building stalls to place them on? That or because I've been collecting big clams and putting them on a rock...but it was never many of either so it baffled me. I got rid of the DIYs and she's not saying I have stuff laying around so was that it? You can't put them in your inventory so I'm not sure what she expects.

But what does count as stuff laying around? Will my clam collection eventually start haunting me?

 

[Xara]

i don’t think the clams were the issue. the issue was likely the diys - basically anything that is ‘dropped’ rather than ‘placed’ will be counted as having stuff lying around. this includes furniture, clothes, diy, money, etc

 

[biksoka]

I believe anything that naturally spawns (branches, stones, shells) don't count but everything else dropped (iron, wood, diys) are all clutter

 

[R. Planet]

For me that would mean Turnip Mountain.

...i ran out of room for my turnips in my house.

 

[N a t]

For my town it was DIYs...

 

[baobei]

definitely the diys; the moment i picked all of mine up i got to a 5 star lol i usually store my extras in the basement of my house!

 

[Ras]

I liked dropping fossils in generic bone form in a canyon area, but I don’t think game likes it.

 

[DJStarstryker]

I've got an area that is called "Home Depot" (I even made a bad non-artist version of their logo and put it on a sign) where I keep pre-made tools and extra materials sitting around. I know for a fact Home Depot's giving me dings for my star rating, but right now, I care about that convenience more than my island rating.

It's awfully nice when my fishing rod breaks that I can run to Home Depot and get another. And if I fish so much that I break all of the pre-made ones, well, I have a DIY bench and materials right there. Shut up, Isabelle, you sit in the office all day. You're not helping me with manual labor!

 

[milraen]

I had a few fruit and shell stalls where I just “dropped” them onto the stalls. I had to reduce the amount of them because Isabelle put me from 5 to 4 stars just because of those