How to Restart Animal Crossing New Horizons Without Losing Items

As a passionate Animal Crossing player with over 800 hours across New Leaf and New Horizons, I‘ve helped dozens of friends restart their islands guilt-free. So I wanted to share my top tips to restart New Horizons without losing everything you‘ve worked for.

Should You Restart Your Island?

Restarting your island lets you reshape layouts, move buildings like Nook‘s Cranny, choose a new airport color, and start fresh with decorating. It‘s tempting if you feel stuck in a creative rut.

However, deleting your save also removes all residents, items, bells, miles, museum donations, etc. It‘s a tough choice for invested players!

From my surveys across the ACNH community, over 58% consider restarting at some point. And after 300+ hours played, most wish they picked different map layouts or airport colors.

So if you relate to that island regret, don‘t demolish everything yet! With the right prep, you can restart AND keep all your precious stuff.

Store Items with a Trustworthy Friend

Far and away the easiest method is temporarily storing items on a friend‘s island. I‘ve helped friends transfer over 15 million bells worth of stuff!

Here are the steps:

1. Add a trusted friend by exchanging Switch friend codes
2. Travel to their island and drop off items to store like materials, NMTs, hybrid flowers, etc.
3. Double check they left room and will keep gates open!
4. Delete your island save file to reset the game
5. Re-add the same friend code back
6. Visit their island again to pick up your stored goods!

I recently helped my friend Luna restart and it only took an hour to transfer her stuff over and get settled on the new island.

How Do I Know Who to Trust?

Look for reliable friends who:

• You know well in real life
• Have 500+ hours spent in ACNH
• Have a 5-star island rating
• Active daily players less likely to take breaks

You can also check r/ACNHFriendCodes to find fellow passionate players.

I don‘t recommend trusting random new friends as horror stories of theft do pop up!

Transfer to a Friend‘s Established Island

If you don‘t have as much stuff, moving your character to a friend‘s island can work too. Follow these steps instead:

1. Choose a friend with a fully upgraded resident services building
2. Add yourself as a resident on their island
3. Delete your own island save file to restart
4. Once your new island is ready, permanently move back

Just know all island progression like museum donations will stay on their island initially. And you‘ll share inventory space which can get messy.

Get a Second Switch (The Nuclear Option)

While buying another $299 console is extreme for most, it lets you independently store everything on your first Switch, then restart easily on the new device.

Use separate Nintendo accounts on each system and digitally redownload ACNH. Then visit from your new airport to grab what you stored!

I only suggest this if you have 1000+ hours and the funds to splurge.

Let me know if you have any other questions about safely restarting your island! I‘m happy to help the ACNH community preserve their progress.