From what I've seen 东西 is used when talking about food. Are there any other times where you use it instead of 件事？
Examples:
我想吃一点东西。
我告诉你一件事。
1 Answer
「東西」 means a "thing", a generic word for any object. 「那是甚麼東西？」 "What is that thing?" Food is obviously a subset of "things". There are many times you can refer to an object as 東西, like a toy, a pen... you name it.
「一件事」 is referring to an event (事件), or something that has happened.
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Why do you use traditional Chinese to confuse the asker when he is clearly using simplified Chinese– NoNameNov 11, 2017 at 15:15
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Welcome to Chinese Language! You can always edit or leave your own answer if you like. If the OP didn't understand he could have asked me to modify my answer, but instead this answer was accepted so I wouldn't presume the OP was confused. I use traditional Chinese because where I'm from we do not use simplified Chinese.– MoobieNov 11, 2017 at 19:12