Workshop mods in singleplayer.

I'm trying to a play a me, by myself solo run, with mods of course, i tried searching around for guides on how to play with mods in singleplayer, there are only guides on how to load mods on a hosted server, that or install mods on a singleplayer run but only be able to spawn the modded items by hand rather than them being configured to spawn naturally in spawn locations around the map, is it impossible to use mods in singleplayer, do i only have to play with what the map naturally has to offer? if not then, what's the steps to go through to achieve whats desired?