'杂物' (zá wù) literally combines '杂' (zá), meaning 'mixed', 'various', or 'miscellaneous', and '物' (wù), meaning 'thing' or 'object'. Together, they refer to a collection of small, unrelated, often unimportant items—typically things that accumulate in homes, offices, or storage spaces and lack a clear category or purpose. It carries a neutral-to-slightly-negative connotation, implying disorganization or lack of tidiness.

This word is commonly used in everyday contexts involving cleaning, organizing, moving, or decluttering. You’ll hear it in phrases like '清理杂物' (clear away clutter) or '杂物间' (a storage room for miscellaneous items). Unlike more specific nouns like '书籍' (books) or '工具' (tools), '杂物' groups together items that resist easy classification—old cables, spare buttons, broken pens, or forgotten souvenirs. It’s rarely used in formal writing but very frequent in spoken Mandarin when discussing household management or space efficiency.