Community-made quality of life adjustments and bug fixes that do not effect combat or vanilla balance.
Condensed into a simple list for easy sharing.

Highly recommended for new or returning players who don't want major gameplay overhauls.

Additional Joy Objects - Expanded vanilla joy items. Adds tea.
Additional Traits - More variety to pawns.
AllowDeadMansApparel - Allows closet creation in one click instead of 20.
Debris B-Gone - Bug fix for underground base visuals. Allows pawns to clean rock debris.
Hand Me That Brick - Haulers become teamsters. Less micromanagement with builders.
Harvest Everything - Harvest limbs of prisoners and animals at the cost of Mood.*
Heat Map - One button allows you to see the temperature of each room at a glance. Should be core.
HugsLib - Library for expanded scripts. Required for some mods.
I Can Fix It - Destroyed objects are automatically ordered to be rebuilt. No more conduit headaches.
Refugee Stats - Shows the passions of a refugee to prevent terrible additions to your colony.
RimFridge - This mod is beautiful for modern bases and freezer foot traffic.
Xeva's Rimhair - Additional hair styles randomly added to the pool.
Expanded Prosthetics and Organ Engineering - Balanced vanilla crafting of trader-only parts.
LTDoormat - Craft doormats to collect dirt at doorways. Keeps sterile rooms sterile.
Hydroponics with Lamps - A more reasonable solution than sunlamps and limited base design.
Stack XXL - Increases stack size.** An adjustable storage solution.
Set Up Camp - Allows you to camp and manage your caravan in the field. Should be core.

*Mods that combo well but make the game easier are Harvest Prisoner Organs and Less Death Randomness.
These are not listed for balance reasons but easily searched if that suits your interest.
**Balanced for vanilla. Does not change item weight or carry limits. Only increases stack cap from 75 to 750+ for more managable freezer sizes that don't take up half your base. Combos well with RimFridge.