Cleaned the bad mess (6)

I believe the answer is:

bathed

'cleaned' is the definition.
(bathing is a kind of cleaning)

'the bad mess' is the wordplay.
'mess' is an anagram indicator.
'the'+'bad'='thebad'
'thebad' is an anagram of 'BATHED'.

(Another definition for bathed that I've seen is " Cleansed the body".)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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