there's a long standing issue where Sims do exactly what you describe if there are dishes somewhere that they can't reach.
Please check all your shelves, half-walls, trophy cases if you have any dishes there that you'll need to manually clean first (or put them elsewhere so they can be reached)
Unfortunately the dishes and leftovers are within reach on counters, they're not on shelves or anything. The sim also collects them and instead of throwing/washing them (away), they put it back on the counter within reach.
Did you check all the shelves ? They autonomously put them there and then the sims can't retrieve them
This is the current bug report for it: Sims will not wash dishes (Patch 1.63) | EA Forums - 4946060
unfortunately I don't have time to check saves atm but maybe you could test another business to see if the same issue occurs there ?
Community Manager
