Template:Cleanup

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When to use

This tag is intended to identify pages that need wikification or the correction of spelling, grammar, typographical errors, tone, and other similar, non-content-focused changes.

Articles that violate policy need more direct action. Other templates, such as {{POV}}, are better suited to content disputes.

Alternatives

If the problem is correctable with the skills you already possess, consider being bold and fixing it yourself, rather than applying this template and leaving it for someone else to clean up.

If you feel that an article needs a significant amount of cleanup, you can post it to WikiProject Cleanup. It is more effective than using {{Cleanup}} as there is a backlog for the tags. Editors will give your submitted article a cleanup and fix any problems associated with it.

How to use

{{Cleanup}} should be used with the following two parameters:

• |date=: the month and year (e.g. October 2025) when the Cleanup template was added to the article; this helps to figure out how long an article has been tagged for cleanup.
• |reason=: the reason for requesting cleanup. This is useful for editors in case the reason for requesting a cleanup is not immediately obvious.

Optional parameters include:

• |talk= or |talksection=: the section of the talk page explaining what needs to be done. Add a new section to the talk page explaining the type and extent of clean-up required, so editors will know what to address and when to remove this template. This parameter's value is not used when {{Cleanup}} appears inside {{Multiple issues}}.
• |1= (or an empty parameter): changes the default descriptor (i.e., "article"). For example, {{Cleanup|section}} changes it to "section".
• |small=: enter 'left' here to turn the template into a small box on the left side of the screen.
• |nocat=: enter 'true' here to prevent the template from adding cleanup categories to the article.

The template should be placed at the top of the article requiring a cleanup. If practicable, please use a more specific cleanup template. Because {{Cleanup}} is vague, specific problems should be identified in the reason field; a more detailed explanation of what needs to be done can be provided on the article's talk page. An article's {{Cleanup}} template may be removed without the problems being fixed if it is not possible to identify what needs to be cleaned up.

If this template is substituted, the end result consists of an unsubstituted form including an automatically filled date= parameter with the current date.

Examples

For example, {{Cleanup|reason=The article is full of incorrect capitalization.|date=October 2025}} would display as:

(although {{copyedit}} would be the more appropriate tag to use in that specific case)

The template detects which namespace it is used in and changes accordingly:

Article
Category
Template

The descriptor (on the preceding example "template") can be changed from its default using the first parameter, for instance {{Cleanup|section}} or {{Cleanup|disambiguation page}}.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Cleanup in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Cleanup

This tag is intended to identify pages that need wikification or the correction of spelling, grammar, typographical errors, tone, and other similar, non-content-focused changes. Use this tag when the article needs improvement per WP:BETTER.

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	date	The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically. Example January 2013 Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	Line	suggested
Reason	reason	Reason for requesting cleanup Example The article is full of incorrect capitalization.	String	required
Talk page section	talk talksection	The section of the talk page explaining what needs to be done	String	optional
Make template small	small	Enter "left" here to make the template box small and aligned to the left. Example left Auto value left	Line	optional
Affected area	1	Text to replace the word "article", usually "section" Example section Auto value section	Line	optional
No category	nocat	Suppress categorization Example true Auto value true	String	optional

Categorization

This template will add pages on which it is used to a specific category Category:Articles needing cleanup containing pages needing cleanup or a dated subcategory thereof.

Tracking categories

• Category:All pages needing cleanup (5)

For tracking purposes it also categorises the page according to whether a reason code has been given.

See also

• {{Cleanup AfD}} – for AfD discussions that closed as "keep", but require cleanup
• {{Cleanup image}} – for images that need cleanup
• {{Cleanup reorganize}} – for articles that need a reorganization in addition to cleanup
• {{Cleanup see also}} – for "See also" sections
• {{Cleanup merge}} – after mergers
• {{Multiple issues}}
• {{Spacing}}
• Wikipedia:Clarify the cleanup
• Wikipedia:Cleanup process
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup
• List of cleanup templates

Redirects

• {{Attention}}
• {{Attention (on talk page)}}
• {{Attention see talk}}
• {{Attn}}
• {{CU}}
• {{Clean}}
• {{Clean up}}
• {{Clean-up}}
• {{Cleancat}}
• {{Cleanup-article}}
• {{Cleanup-because}}
• {{Cleanup-date}}
• {{Cleanup-quality}}
• {{Cleanup-reason}}
• {{Cleanup-since}}
• {{Clu}}
• {{Cu}}
• {{Improve}}
• {{Index-cleanup}}
• {{Quality}}
• {{Tidy}}

Wrappers

• {{Cleanup section}}
  • {{Cleanup-section}}
  • {{Clean-up section}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Cleanup/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.