Three different freezes, three different causes. Right now: delete nothing, and don't save a game that just froze — then make a copy of your Mods folder (two minutes, and everything below becomes risk-free). Then go straight to the section that describes your freeze: each one starts with the cheapest step, like the full guide.
The cheapest step: the no-mods test. Rename your Mods folder to Mods_off and relaunch the game. If it loads, a mod file is at fault — and if you just added some, start by taking those out, the latest arrivals: they're the most suspect half. If it stays stuck even with no mods at all, the cause is elsewhere — the game, a save, a cache: delete localthumbcache.package (step 4 of the guide), and if that changes nothing, it's a job for EA support, not for this page.
One case reproduced in game, worth knowing: a script mod written for an older version of the game can keep it stuck on the loading screen. When that happens, the game sometimes leaves a lastException report (step 5 of the guide) that names the script and talks about too many or too few arguments. If you read a file name in there, take that file out first — then check whether its creator has published an update, rather than deleting it.
A slow load isn't a freeze. After a patch or a cleared cache, the first launch takes longer than usual: the game is rebuilding what it lost. Give it the time it takes to make a coffee before you conclude. And if the game just updated, first check that your mods are still ticked — step 1 of the guide — before any test: a game that loads without mods because they're unticked teaches you nothing.
It's a case the community knows well, caused by broken custom content — often old, and still up for download somewhere. It has nothing to do with a recent patch. The cheapest step: start the 50/50 (step 6 of the guide) with your Build/Buy CC, not with your script mods or your clothes. While the faulty file is there, the rest of the game works: just avoid the search bar.
The cause, at the file level — measured here, not copied from anywhere: an object whose catalogue name or description contains a curly brace with no valid token inside, a bit of code the game tries to read when the search walks through the names. The same file with the text fixed no longer freezes anything. Reproduced and confirmed in game. What matters for you: the game's report won't help here — this freeze ends in a hard crash, and a hard crash writes nothing (step 5 of the guide). No report doesn't mean no culprit.
The test itself is short: open Build Mode, type one letter in the search. If the game doesn't freeze, the half you're testing is innocent. Write down what you put back at each attempt — it's what keeps you from testing the same half three times.
The cheapest step, again: the no-mods test (Mods → Mods_off, relaunch, play a few minutes). If the freeze persists with no mods at all, it doesn't come from a mod, and the 50/50 would cost you a whole night for nothing. If the freeze goes away, a file is at fault — but which one, this page can't name: go through step 6 of the guide, and if your Mods folder sits in a synced folder (OneDrive, iCloud), read step 3 first, otherwise the test lies.
What isn't a mod, and what this site can't diagnose: a graphics driver, a background program reading your disk right when the game needs it (an online backup, an antivirus scanning the Mods folder at every write), a graphics-effects injector, not enough memory. A freeze that comes back at regular intervals, whatever the room or the Sim, rarely comes from a file. We won't tell you what to uninstall: that's not our job, and a page that did so without having seen your machine would waste your time.
CC your save still uses will vanish during the test, which can give you bald Sims or missing furniture: that's normal, and putting it back fixes it. Don't save during the test, and everything comes back.
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