How do I merge two households in Paralives?

There is no merge menu in Early Access. The working routes: a romantic 'ask to move in' (children don't follow), the addselectedcharacterstohousehold cheat after box-selecting both Paras, or creating a new household and choosing merge. Watch the funds afterwards — money handling on merge has an open bug report.

How do I move a Para into another household?

Same answer, one Para: romance them and ask them to move in, or box-select them with one of yours and run addselectedcharacterstohousehold in the console. If they have children, invite from the other household's side or add the kids by cheat — they don't follow on their own.

How do I split a household?

Buy a new lot, open the original home lot's menu from the town map, choose 'Split Household', pick the departing members and optionally send money (it can be zero). They become a separate playable household on the new lot.

How do I change or switch which household I play?

Zoom out to the town map and click any moved-in household, then confirm the swap. A short loading screen later you're playing them. Clicking your own home lot opens its menu instead.

Is there a household size limit?

8 Paras by default — never officially stated, but every larger-household mod on the Workshop describes itself as raising it from 8 (to 12, 20 or even 99). If you need more, that's the route.

How do I delete a family or evict a Para?

Without cheats you can't delete a Para. The clean method: split them onto their own lot and never play that household — split every member out and the whole family lives on a lot you simply ignore. The alternative is killing them — deprivation, fire, or kill cheats.

Do children move in with their parent?

No — this is the most-reported household problem in the Steam discussions. When a romantic partner moves in, their children stay behind. Invite from the other household's side, or add the child with the merge cheat afterwards.

Can I share my household on the Steam Workshop?

Yes — save the household to the library and upload it; since 0.1.4 you can tag uploads, and 0.1.5 fixed Para nicknames not being saved with library households. Our Workshop page covers sharing in detail.

How do I edit or manage a household in Paralives?

There's no single 'edit household' screen in Early Access — the tools are spread across the game. Zoom out to the town map to switch households, click your home lot to open the split/sell/library menu, ask a romantic partner to move in or run the merge cheat to add Paras, and split someone out to evict them. Households saved to the library carry over to any save file.

Paralives Households — Merge & Split

Quick answer

One household = Paras + home lot + shared Paradimes

A household is a group of Paras living on one home lot with a shared Paradimes balance. You manage them from the town map: zoom out and click any moved-in household to switch to it, or click your own home lot for the management menu — split, sell, library. A household holds up to 8 Paras by default — a number the studio has never officially stated, but every larger-household mod describes itself as raising it from 8.

8Paras per household by default — mod-corroborated, never officially stated

Switch

How to change or switch the household you play

Zoom out to the town map — the hazy-filter overview — and click any household that has moved in. Confirm the swap, sit through a short loading screen, and you're playing them. Clicking your own home lot opens its lot menu instead of switching.

The Paralives town map zoomed out with circular household icons over residential lots before switching the active family. — Zoom out until you see the whole town — each circle is a playable household.Watch at 0:15

Paralives town map with a household side panel open and the blue Switch to this Household button on a target lot. — Click any installed household, then confirm Switch to this Household.Watch at 0:34

Within the household

Switching the Para you control — and playing as a child

Switching households (above) moves you between families; inside one, every Para is directly yours. Paras are controlled by either you or the game's AI, and handing control around is instant — no menu, no mode switch. The three bindings that matter:

Left-click + drag over Paras
Select a Para (or drag a box over several) to take direct control.
F
Re-centre the camera on the selected Para.
Shift + left-click (portraits)
Add portraits to the selection and direct several Paras at once.

Children are full members of that loop: school-age kids can be selected and directed like adults, and the community's challenge guides lean on the opposite trick — switching kids to autonomy so they raise themselves while you play someone else. Babies and toddlers are different: they are needs you manage (plus daycare once enrolled) rather than characters you steer.

Two related answers: you can also start as a child — the Paramaker offers all eight life stages at creation, so a child-led household is a valid first save. And rotational players pair the household switch above with the non-household aging toggle, which is what keeps off-screen families from growing old without you.

The Para & family roster Aging & the non-household toggle

Home-lot menu

What the home-lot menu can do

Click your own home lot from the town map and you get the management hub. It shows household members, square footage and beds/baths, plus these options:

Split Household
Move members out onto a second lot you own — the core of household management, walked through below.
Sell all walls and items on lot
Liquidate the lot's contents back into Paradimes. You can sell a lot without having bought a new one first.
Move lot
Listed alongside split and sell in the menu — the community guides don't detail it further, and we won't guess.
Save / place from the library
Save the lot to the library or place one from it. Library lots and households persist across save files — the official content-level backup.

Split

How to split a household (move Paras out)

There is no 'move out' button — splitting is how Paras leave. The full sequence:

The Paralives Split Household screen with members listed in left and right panes and arrows to move a Para into a new household. — Pick who leaves, assign them a destination lot, then confirm the split.Watch at 1:00

Paralives Split Household confirmation showing Paradimes being transferred to the departing member before the split completes. — Funds can move with the departing Para — split the money here, not after the fact.Watch at 1:15

1
Buy a second lot first: in town view, click an available home and choose 'Purchase Lot' — the confirmation shows your remaining Paradimes.
2
Go back to your original home lot on the town map and open its menu.
3
Choose 'Split Household'. A menu lists every household member with their Paradimes.
4
Move the departing members to the right side and optionally send money with them — the transfer can be zero.
5
Confirm. They move into the second lot as a separate, fully playable household.

This doubles as the only no-cheat way to evict a Para: split them out and simply never play that household. There is no delete-Para option without cheats — the community's alternatives (needs deprivation, a fire trap, kill cheats) are exactly as grim as they sound.

The town map after a split with Switch to this Household open on the original home lot to resume the remaining family. — After splitting, switch back to whichever household you want to play next.Watch at 2:15

Merge & move in

Moving a Para into a household — read this first

There is no general 'transfer Para between households' menu in Early Access. These are the routes that actually exist today:

Romantic 'ask to move in' — and the children catch

A Para can ask a romantic partner to move in. Here's the catch that tops the Steam discussions: the partner's children do not follow automatically — Sarah moves in without Orion, Sebastian without Eli. Player workarounds: switch to the other household and send the invitation from that side so the child is included, or add the child afterwards with the cheat on the right. Whether children ever follow in any context is unconfirmed — there is no official statement.

The merge cheat

Box-select (or shift-click) the outside Para together with one of yours, open the console and run the command below. Players report an added child can still 'think' they live at the old house, so re-check their home lot afterwards. Console shortcuts per platform:

addselectedcharacterstohouseholdCtrl + F1 / Cmd + F1Ctrl + Shift + C / Cmd + Shift + C

Cheats & console

New-household merge / replace

Creating a new household from the Paramaker / new-family flow (no new save needed) offers to merge the new Paras into the current household or replace it. Only community snippets describe this dialog — the exact wording isn't officially documented, so read the buttons carefully before confirming.

Money when households combine

Funds handling on merge is murky enough to have its own open bug-report thread ('Merging households/funds'). No official resolution is documented — check both balances after any merge, and screenshot first if it matters.

Deleting or evicting a Para

There is no delete button without cheats. The clean route is the split-out above — the Para keeps existing, just not in your house. Split every member out and the whole family is gone from your play, living on their own lot. Beyond that, the community's options are killing them: needs deprivation, a fire trap, or the kill / set-on-fire cheat commands. Dark, but that's Early Access.

Multiple households

Playing more than one household

Households you're not playing keep living in town while you're elsewhere — and here's the part that matters: Paras outside your active household don't age by default, so your other families won't grow old while you're away unless you flip the aging toggle. Switching households is also one of the official fixes for the 'everything is floating' glitch (the other is quitting without saving and reloading).

Aging

Across saves

Households beyond one save file

Save a household to the library and it persists across save files — the studio's official content-level backup since 0.1.3. Patch 0.1.5 fixed Para nicknames not saving with library households, and since 0.1.4 creators can tag household and lot uploads on the Workshop (editing an existing upload in-game is how tags get added).

Unverified

What nobody has documented yet

Open questions we won't guess at:

The 8-Para default limit is corroborated by mod descriptions ('increases from 8 to 20') but has never appeared in patch notes or on the wiki.
The exact wording and placement of the new-household merge/replace dialog.
Whether a child ever follows automatically when a parent moves in — player reports say no, but there is no official statement.
Whether funds merge correctly when households combine — the bug thread is still open.
Whether a Baby or a Toddler can be made the active, directly controlled Para is not documented in any source we checked.

Household FAQ

How do I merge two households in Paralives?: There is no merge menu in Early Access. The working routes: a romantic 'ask to move in' (children don't follow), the addselectedcharacterstohousehold cheat after box-selecting both Paras, or creating a new household and choosing merge. Watch the funds afterwards — money handling on merge has an open bug report.
How do I move a Para into another household?: Same answer, one Para: romance them and ask them to move in, or box-select them with one of yours and run addselectedcharacterstohousehold in the console. If they have children, invite from the other household's side or add the kids by cheat — they don't follow on their own.
How do I split a household?: Buy a new lot, open the original home lot's menu from the town map, choose 'Split Household', pick the departing members and optionally send money (it can be zero). They become a separate playable household on the new lot.
How do I change or switch which household I play?: Zoom out to the town map and click any moved-in household, then confirm the swap. A short loading screen later you're playing them. Clicking your own home lot opens its menu instead.
Is there a household size limit?: 8 Paras by default — never officially stated, but every larger-household mod on the Workshop describes itself as raising it from 8 (to 12, 20 or even 99). If you need more, that's the route.
How do I delete a family or evict a Para?: Without cheats you can't delete a Para. The clean method: split them onto their own lot and never play that household — split every member out and the whole family lives on a lot you simply ignore. The alternative is killing them — deprivation, fire, or kill cheats.
Do children move in with their parent?: No — this is the most-reported household problem in the Steam discussions. When a romantic partner moves in, their children stay behind. Invite from the other household's side, or add the child with the merge cheat afterwards.
Can I share my household on the Steam Workshop?: Yes — save the household to the library and upload it; since 0.1.4 you can tag uploads, and 0.1.5 fixed Para nicknames not being saved with library households. Our Workshop page covers sharing in detail.
How do I edit or manage a household in Paralives?: There's no single 'edit household' screen in Early Access — the tools are spread across the game. Zoom out to the town map to switch households, click your home lot to open the split/sell/library menu, ask a romantic partner to move in or run the merge cheat to add Paras, and split someone out to evict them. Households saved to the library carry over to any save file.

Keep reading

Managing households in Paralives