Your sister and her family are coming over to your house to visit. Your living room is a little messy. You ask your children to help you clean it:
Guys, help me straighten up a little please.
Your young nieces and nephews came over to your house during the Christmas holidays. They were playing with toys, eating and drinking, and opening gifts. Now they've left and your house is really messy. You say to your husband:
Look at this place! They completely trashed it!
children (topic), cleaning, dirty, holidays You're mad at your daughter because she leaves a mess in the kitchen when she eats. You want to show that you're annoyed with her for this. You say:
How many times do I have to tell you to clean up after yourself?
Your husband spilled some milk on the kitchen counter. It doesn't seem like he's going to clean it. You're annoyed, so you say:
Can you wipe that up, please?
This is a way to ask someone to do something. It's more direct than asking "Could you..."
You "wipe up" a liquid by using a towel or paper towel to get rid of it. When you name the thing you're wiping up, you say it after "up":
Can you wipe up that milk on the counter?
When you use "it", "that", "this", or some short noun, you put it before "up":
Can you wipe it up?
Can you wipe the milk up?
Compare this to just using the word "wipe ___ off (of something)". You use "wipe off" for something that's stuck onto something, like dust, grease, or some kind of mark:
Let me wipe the dust off of that before you use it.
And "wipe" can also be used in the phrase "wipe ___ down", which means to wipe something all over in order to clean it:
Don't forget to wipe down the counters and the top of the refrigerator.
Between strangers, "please" is a word that makes your requests more polite. But when you use it with someone you're close with, it often means that you're angry.
In the example at top, the wife asked her husband "Can you wipe that up, please?" when she was annoyed. Here's another example: a mother yells at her child, who's playing with something that he pulled off of the shelf at the grocery store:
Put that down, please.
annoyed, argument, cleaning, home, phrasal verb 