Eggcorn Forum

Rummage is cognate with room and was originally applied to properly arranging the cargo in a ship. From arrumage, it evolved into arrimage in modern French. A rummage sale was a sale of unclaimed goods at the docks. The sense of rooting about in a pile of stuff in order to find an article of value was already in use in the early 17th c. Despite the wont of sailors, rummage is not related to nippage, tottage, or sluggage of ardent spirits aboard.

Rubbish, as a descriptor of generally degraded domestic jetsam, is probably a sibling to rubble. Despite evidence to the contrary from a few dozen sites on the web, there is no such thing as a rubbage sale. There are, however, lots of hits for those who think the local parish runs a rubbish sale.

Someone upthread was talking about the “too good to toss” pile at the town landfill. Maybe check and see if your town has something similar? Or maybe after hours at the church rubbish sale?
http://www.frugalwoods.com/2015/03/23/o … ash-finds/

I was helping my dad clean out the attic to find stuff to take to the church rubbish sale and this thing fell out.
http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vinta … ottle.html

My sister wondered if they would sell at the Church rubbish sale. I said yes, some old guy like dad would buy them. LOL LOL LOL
http://claudiasaolthoughts.blogspot.ca/ … riday.html

But then I have a really cool floral armchair from a church rubbish sale that was $5.
http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.com/feature … ohara.aspx