Unsightly Environment? Fix Your RimWorld Eyesore

RimWorld "Unsightly Environment" Debuff: Ultimate Cleanliness & Beauty GuideWelcome, fellow RimWorld players! Tired of your colonists whining about how ugly your base is? This toolbox-style guide dives deep into the "Unsightly Environment" mood debuff – what causes it, how to fix it, and pro tips to keep your pawns happy.

        
            
            Quick-Start Navigation
        
        What Causes "Unsightly Environment"?
How to Fix or Avoid Ugly Environments
Visual Examples: Ugly vs. Beautiful Rooms
Advanced Tactics for Happy Colonists
Mods for Cleaning & Beauty
Recent Changes & Community Highlights
Community Q&A

    

            
            Search Intent Snapshot
        To craft a comprehensive guide, we first examined what players are really searching for around "rimworld unsightly" and related terms:

            
                
                        Player Search Query
                        Intent – What They're Looking For
                    

                
                        "RimWorld unsightly environment debuff"
                        Understand why colonists get the Unsightly Environment mood penalty and how it works.
                    

                        "RimWorld ugly environment won't go away"
                        Find out hidden ugliness causes (filth, objects) when base looks clean.
                    

                        "How to remove unsightly environment RimWorld"
                        Solutions to fix ugly surroundings – cleaning tips, decoration, etc.
                    

                        "RimWorld beauty stat thresholds"
                        Mood thresholds for environment beauty (what beauty values give +5, -5 mood, etc.).
                    

                        "RimWorld keep base clean"
                        Cleaning strategies – managing filth, dedicated cleaners, zones.
                    

            
        

            
            1. What Causes the "Unsightly Environment" Debuff?
        "Unsightly Environment" is a negative thought (mood debuff) your colonists get when their Beauty need falls below a certain point due to an ugly surrounding. In RimWorld, every pawn has an internal Beauty meter that goes up in nice environments and down in ugly ones.
Beauty Need 101Pawns "judge" the area around them by looking at all the tiles and objects in their view. Each tile has a Beauty value which is the sum of all things on that tile:
Positive values come from pretty stuff (flowers, art, fancy furniture)
Negative values come from ugly stuff (dirt, trash, raw stone, corpses)
The game continuously updates a pawn's beauty need based on what they see
Thresholds & Mood Effects
            
                
                        Environment
                        Beauty Score
                        Mood Effect
                    

                
                        Extremely Beautiful
                        +6 or higher
                        +15 mood
                    

                        Pretty
                        +2.5 to +5.9
                        +5 mood
                    

                        Neutral
                        -0.5 to +2.4
                        No effect
                    

                        Unsightly
                        -1 to -3
                        -5 mood
                    

                        Ugly
                        -3.5 to -4
                        -10 mood
                    

                        Hideous
                        -4 or worse
                        -15 mood
                    

            
        
Who Cares and Who Doesn'tNot all pawns react the same way to their surroundings:
Ascetic TraitHappy with awful bedrooms (+5 mood), but still affected by general ugliness elsewhere.
Blind PawnsCompletely immune to beauty effects - they can't see the dirt or art.
Undergrounder TraitDon't mind darkness/closed spaces, but still care about beauty.

            
            2. How to Fix or Avoid Unsightly Environments
        
                
                
                
            
2.1 Cleaning Strategies: Keep the Colony SparklingClean floors = happy pawns. The most straightforward way to avoid "unsightly environment" is simply to clean the place!
Use the Home Area and priorities wiselyColonists only clean in areas marked as "Home." Assign at least one pawn with Cleaning set to priority 1. In early game, this might be the same person handling hauling. Later, you might dedicate a specific janitor.
High-traffic areas need extra carePlaces like your kitchen, dining room, main hallways, and workshop get dirty fast because pawns and animals track dirt with each step. Focus cleaning efforts there.
Floors vs. bare groundBuilding floors is not just for looks – it greatly helps cleaning. Dirt terrain will continuously generate more filth when walked on. Even a simple wooden floor or concrete slab will prevent dirt from spawning and is easier to clean.

                    PRO TIP: Use the new "Clean Room" command in RimWorld 1.5! Select a colonist, right-click on a room and choose "Clean Room." The pawn will automatically clean all filth in that room in one go.
                
2.2 Beautification and Decoration TipsCleaning will remove the negatives, but to actually get positive mood from environment, you need to add beauty:
Flooring and WallsBetter materials boost beauty. For floors, any constructed floor is at least 0 beauty, some are +1 or +2 (carpet is +2 per tile). Smooth stone walls in mountain bases (+2 beauty) or build with marble (+1 beauty).
Plants and FlowersA cheap, renewable way to beautify: plant some flowers! Daylilies and roses are decorative plants you can sow in flower pots or hydroponics (daylilies have Beauty +8 in a pot).
Art and SculpturesSculptures are your colony's primary way to pump beauty into an area. Even a normal quality small sculpture can provide tens of points of beauty to a room. A legendary grand sculpture can make a whole room impressive by itself.

                    BEAUTY VALUES TO REMEMBER:

                    ✗ Blood: -30 Beauty

                    ✗ Vomit: -40 Beauty

                    ✗ Stone chunks: -10 Beauty (see our steel production guide for dealing with slag chunks)

                    ✓ Daylily (in pot): +8 Beauty

                    ✓ Normal Sculpture: +40-60 Beauty

                    ✓ Smoothed stone wall: +2 Beauty
                
2.3 Room Stats Management & LayoutA bit of planning in base design can prevent ugliness from the start:
Separate Stockpiles from Living AreasYour colonists shouldn't be eating or chilling in the same room as heaps of logs and chunks. As you grow, designate a warehouse and keep it closed off. For steel chunks specifically, consider smelting them for resources - check our steel production guide.
Room Roles MatterKitchens, hospitals, dining, rec room – these should be high priority for cleanliness and beauty. Bedrooms can be lower priority (pawns mostly sleep there; they don't care about beauty when asleep).
Use ShelvesItems on shelves don't affect room beauty. This is huge – you can have a stack of cloth that would normally be -5 beauty, but if it's on a shelf, colonists don't see it as ugly.

                        BAD PRACTICE:
                        All-purpose rooms (storage + dining + crafting)
Items left on floor instead of shelves
Butchering in the kitchen (blood everywhere)
Animals allowed to wander through living areas

                    

                        GOOD PRACTICE:
                        Specialized rooms with specific functions
Dedicated storage rooms away from dining/rec
Airlocks/mudrooms at entrances to catch dirt
Animal zones restricted from clean areas

                    
Use the Beauty Inspect Tool!At the bottom right of the screen, there's a button that looks like a face – that's the Beauty display toggle. Turn it on and you'll see numbers floating over each tile:
Green numbers = pretty
Red numbers = ugly
This is your diagnostic tool. If a colonist is complaining about unsightly environment and you can't figure out why, toggle beauty and look for the red numbers!

            
            3. Visual Examples: Ugly vs. Beautiful Rooms
        UNSIGHTLY ROOM

                        
                    
A cramped barracks cluttered with items and dirt. Bedrolls, weapons, unsmoothed walls, and resources on the ground.
-5 MOOD: "Unsightly environment"
BEAUTIFUL ROOM

                        
                    
A cozy dining room with wooden floors, sculptures, potted plants, and quality furniture. Clean and well-arranged.
+5 MOOD: "Pretty environment"
A Colonist's Beauty Need in ActionBeauty Need:
▼

                        0%
                        49%
                        100%
                    
This pawn's Beauty need is at 49% - just below the neutral zone. The white marker shows the immediate environment's effect pushing it below 50%, meaning this pawn will soon get the "Unsightly environment -5" mood debuff if nothing changes.

            
            4. Advanced Tactics for Keeping Colonists Happy
        
                    4.1 Zone & Scheduling Tricks
                    +
                
Zone management can partially control where colonists spend time. If you have an area that is consistently ugly, you can set up an Allowed Area that excludes that spot for all colonists except those who absolutely need to go there.
Cleaning zones:Mods like CleaningArea let you define where cleaning should happen first. You could set a high-priority cleaning zone for your kitchen and dining, and low priority for the workshop.
Work schedules:Consider giving pawns scheduled recreation in a particularly beautiful spot. If you schedule 2 hours of Anything or Recreation time after lunch, chances are they'll recreate in that pretty room, filling their beauty need bar.

                    4.2 Roles & Priorities
                    +
                
Create a role (just in your head or via the schedule) of a "Floater" colonist who is tasked with general upkeep. This could be someone with middling skills who otherwise might cause trouble if idle.
Consider colonist traits:If someone has traits that make mood management hard (Volatile, or depressive) and also works in an ugly place, maybe they're not suited for that job.
PRO TIP: Use specialists for ugly tasksIf you need to do a really dirty job (gutting corpses, cleaning blood), consider using a pawn who is either mood-buffed enough to handle it or one who naturally ignores beauty (like a blind pawn, or a sanguine trait who has +12 mood).

                    4.3 Base Architecture & Layout
                    +
                
Airlocks/Mudrooms:Create a small 2x1 or 3x1 room at entrances with two doors (an airlock). Pawns come in from outside, the first tile they step on inside is this tiny room – this catches a lot of filth.
Beauty hiding with walls:You can actually hide ugly art or items behind walls. Walls prevent line of sight, so colonists inside won't see the blood or dirt in other rooms when doors are closed.
Outdoors prettification:Don't neglect outdoor areas! Plant flowers along paths, pave the walkways, and install some sculptures outdoors. A park with statues and trees can act as a mood oasis.
The "Beauty Battery" concept:Because the beauty need decreases slower than it increases, you can "charge" your pawns' beauty meter by having them spend a little time in a gorgeous environment, and then they can tolerate longer in ugly areas.

                    4.4 Dealing with Difficult Traits/Needs
                    +
                
For colonists with high expectations or who are very neurotic, the environment buff/debuff matters more.
Mood boosting elsewhere:If you can't beautify a workplace easily, ensure colonists get joy from a gorgeous rec room or have lavish meals to offset mood. Use Recreation and Social bonuses to counteract ugly surroundings if needed.
Special pawn types:Ascetic pawns don't mind awful bedrooms and focus less on beauty
Blind pawns completely ignore environment beauty
Undergrounders prefer being indoors but still care about beauty

            
            5. Mods That Help with Cleaning and Beauty
        5.1 Cleaning Automation Mods
                            
                        
Misc. Robots / AutocleanerAdds cleaning robots that patrol and clean continuously

                            
                        
Common SenseMakes pawns clean their immediate area before working

                            
                        
DoormatsAdds mats that reduce tracked filth
5.2 Visual Enhancement Mods
                            
                        
Beautiful OutdoorsIncreases beauty of natural things (trees, flowers)

                            
                        
More Furniture/DecorAdds new pretty items to build

                            
                        
Vanilla Furniture ExpandedAdds various new furniture with beauty values
5.3 Gameplay Overhaul ModsSome mods completely change how beauty and cleanliness work:
Realistic Rooms - Reduces how impressiveness affects mood
Psychology - Rebalances mood mechanics
Clean Pathfinding - Makes pawns prefer to walk on clean floors
Filth Vanilla Tweaks - Adjusts how filth works outdoors

                NOTE: Mod combinations can sometimes conflict! Be sure to check compatibility before installing multiple cleaning or beauty mods.
            

            
            6. Recent Changes & Community Highlights
        6.1 RimWorld Update 1.5 (April 2024) HighlightsClean Room CommandRight-click on a room to clean all filth in one go!
Hidden Power ConduitsNo more ugly cables running across rooms
BookcasesNew furniture that increases room beauty
Wall LightsSave floor space while providing light
6.2 Community Meta Highlights
                "Beauty is free mood - unlike food or drugs, making a base beautiful provides constant passive mood boosts with zero ongoing cost."

                — RimWorld Reddit Community
            
Top Community Tips:Always keep a dedicated janitor (cleaning is priority #1)
Use shelves generously - items on shelves don't affect beauty
Keep animals out of your living areas - they track dirt everywhere
Invest in beauty early - it pays dividends through the entire game
Use the "beauty battery" trick - place a pawn briefly in a beautiful room to "charge" their beauty need before they work in ugly areas
Micro-manage cleaning before mood breaks - do a cleaning spree if you notice colonists complaining
Schedule "cleaning day" where everyone briefly cleans to blitz the base after a big event
Focus on beautifying spaces where colonists spend most awake time (dining room, rec room)

            
            7. Community Q&A and Extra Info
        My room is clean but still "unsightly" – what gives?Likely there are ugly objects or walls. Check for things like rock chunks, unsmoothed stone, or even furniture of awful quality. Use the beauty overlay to find the culprit. A room can be perfectly clean yet still ugly due to decor. Add some beauty (plants, art) or remove ugly items. Shelving items can help too. For specialized clean room setups like biosculpter pods, see our biosculpter optimization guide.
Do I really need to floor every room?Not necessarily every single one, but any high-traffic or regularly occupied room should be floored for both beauty and cleanliness. Colonists won't get a mood buff just for flooring, but floors often have positive beauty and reduce dirt. Some players leave utility areas with concrete floor (cheap, slightly ugly at -1) but compensate with art.
How do blind or ascetic pawns interact with beauty?Blind pawns ignore environmental beauty entirely - they won't get unsightly or pretty thoughts at all. Ascetics do have the beauty need, but they get a mood bonus for simple living. They won't complain about an ugly bedroom (in fact they want an awful bedroom for a buff), but they can still get the unsightly environment debuff when outside their bedroom if it's ugly enough.
Do lamps, cables, etc. cause ugliness?Standing lamps have 0 beauty (neutral). Power conduits have -2 beauty per tile when visible (thus the importance of hidden conduits in 1.5). Sun lamps are -12 beauty (they are big ugly machines). Build sun lamps only where needed, and keep batteries and generators in their own room as they have negative beauty.
Help, my colonists are too busy to clean, what do I do?If you absolutely cannot spare labor for cleaning, consider quick fixes: restrict animals (stop adding new mess), reduce home area (so they at least clean core spots), and focus on bottlenecks (like just clean the kitchen and dining area). Consider getting a cleaning bot mod or hiring a temporary worker if possible. Worst case, accept the mood hit but prepare with extra recreation or careful use of mood-boosting consumables.
What about cleanliness vs. beauty – which is more important?They are both important for different reasons. Cleanliness affects things like disease chance and cooking safety, while also contributing to beauty indirectly (because dirt = -beauty). In a hospital, cleanliness is top priority to avoid infections. In a dining room, beauty is the main goal. Generally, clean first to remove negative beauty, then add decorations to boost positive beauty.
Sources & ReferencesRimWorld 1.5 Update Changelog (Apr 2024)
Ludeon Blog – Anomaly Expansion (Mar 2024)
RimWorld Wiki – Beauty & Needs (updated 2024)
Reddit: "How to avoid ugly environment?" (archived)
Steam Discussion: "Unsightly Environment Won't Go Away?" (Dec 2023)
PCGamesN – Best RimWorld Mods 2025 (Mar 2025)
Last Updated: June 2025
Player Search Query	Intent – What They're Looking For
"RimWorld unsightly environment debuff"	Understand why colonists get the Unsightly Environment mood penalty and how it works.
"RimWorld ugly environment won't go away"	Find out hidden ugliness causes (filth, objects) when base looks clean.
"How to remove unsightly environment RimWorld"	Solutions to fix ugly surroundings – cleaning tips, decoration, etc.
"RimWorld beauty stat thresholds"	Mood thresholds for environment beauty (what beauty values give +5, -5 mood, etc.).
"RimWorld keep base clean"	Cleaning strategies – managing filth, dedicated cleaners, zones.
Environment	Beauty Score	Mood Effect
Extremely Beautiful	+6 or higher	+15 mood
Pretty	+2.5 to +5.9	+5 mood
Neutral	-0.5 to +2.4	No effect
Unsightly	-1 to -3	-5 mood
Ugly	-3.5 to -4	-10 mood
Hideous	-4 or worse	-15 mood