Clean up
Clean up verb - To make a place neat and orderly by removing extraneous stuff.
Usage example: you're expected to clean up after you use the workroom
Pick up
Pick up verb - To make a place neat and orderly by removing extraneous stuff.
Usage example: I thought you said you had picked up, so why are these things still lying around the rec room?
Both terms in one sentence
- One of Clark's changes at East Side in Lean on Me is to have detention students help pick up trash and clean up graffiti.
Source: After-School Cleaning Duty -
Doug then says how he had to pick up the cleaning of the shop, and that his cleaning was so bright that he was called by the Canadian NASA to clean up the dark side of the moon (To which he would do for tax-exempt status).
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Space Whale Aesop: The pilot episode, "When Pants Attack", has one: Always remember to be responsible and clean up after yourself, because if you don't, those pants that you forgot to pick up off your floor might become sentient and go on a mad rampage.
Cite this Source
Pick up and Clean up. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 16, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/clean_up/pick_up
Clean up & Pick up. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/clean_up/pick_up>.
Pick up or Clean up. 2016. Accessed August 16, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/clean_up/pick_up.
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