Do you think making a table is the best way to find the total area of the rooms given in the example is there another problem solving strategy you think would work just as well or better describe the alternate method and why you think it works

Well,

First, we'd need to see what the problem is.  If it's an illustration with all of the dimensions of the rooms labeled, you can just write the area inside each room and then make a list of the values.  From there you can just add them up.  So making a table is just a more formal way of organizing your data.  The grids really do not offer much help in adding up the areas.