Question

Flotsam and Jetsam a collection of mostly worthless and useless objects; odds and ends; any objects found floating or washed ashore; rubbish and refuse

Accepted Answer

I'm clearing out my room of all the flotsam and jetsam. The words "flotsam" and "jetsam" date from the early 1500s. Flotsam means all the wreckage and cargo floating in the ocean after a shipwreck. Jetsam is cargo and equipment floating in the water that was thrown overboard to lighten a ship in danger of sinking. By the 19th century these words meant any kind of junk or debris on land or sea, thrown out or not. The near-rhyming sound of the words helped make this idiom popular.

Idiom	Flotsam and Jetsam
Example	I'm clearing out my room of all the flotsam and jetsam.
Meaning	a collection of mostly worthless and useless objects; odds and ends; any objects found floating or washed ashore; rubbish and refuse
Origin	The words "flotsam" and "jetsam" date from the early 1500s. Flotsam means all the wreckage and cargo floating in the ocean after a shipwreck. Jetsam is cargo and equipment floating in the water that was thrown overboard to lighten a ship in danger of sinking. By the 19th century these words meant any kind of junk or debris on land or sea, thrown out or not. The near-rhyming sound of the words helped make this idiom popular.

Flotsam Jetsam Floating Words Cargo Thrown Clearing Room