This drives me crazy. I think the attraction depends on which coffee table you have. For example, I had the industrial style (base game) coffee table in the living room. My sim was canning in the kitchen. Despite having multiple surfaces available in the kitchen, she insisted on bringing the jars to that coffee table every time. So then I added a coffee table to the kitchen, but she ignored it and continued using that industrial one. I changed it to a different coffee table and it wasn’t a problem anymore.
I can think of another time when my sim carried laundry from the second floor down to the first floor, on the opposite side of the house to put the folded laundry on the coffee table. That was infuriating. I can’t remember which coffee table it was, but I deleted it and the laundry stayed in the laundry room from then on.
