Winter is the season of muddy boots, festive drinks, and pets who create mess the moment they back inside. It’s also the season when soft furnishings take the hardest beating – and when being able to clean spills quickly and easily feels more necessary than ever.
If you’re tired of scrubbing and blotting stains only for a half-baked result, the Bissell Little Green Mini, now discounted to $74, is a favorite for professional cleaners and will help you easily achieve and maintain a spotless home this busy winter.
This Bissell Little Green Mini Will Take the Stress out of Winter Cleanups
As someone who tests floorcare appliances for a living, I know exactly where traditional vacuums, mops, and scrubbing brushes fall short. Dry debris is easy to clean, but moisture, mud, red wine, and pet accidents create a different type of mess entirely – the kind that seeps beneath the surface, lingering long after you think you’ve cleaned it.
Spot cleaners like this one are designed specifically for stain removal and washing soft materials, using targeted suction and cleaning solution to draw contaminants out from deep within fabrics. It’s why you’ll spot them in professional carpet-cleaning kits, and why the pros recommend the Bissell Little Green Mini to homeowners who don’t have space for bulky equipment.
House cleaning expert Petya Holevich from Fantastic Services tells me that even professionals with vans full of tools rely on these compact gadgets. ‘The Bissell Little Green Mini fills a gap that traditional vacuums, mops, and scrubbers can’t really cover, because it’s designed to pull dirt, spills, and stains out of soft surfaces instead of just brushing over them.
'A vacuum can lift dry debris from carpets and upholstery, but it can’t flush out embedded residue or deal with sticky spills that have seeped into the fibres,’ she continues.
I've been using a similar spot cleaner for years at home (the Bissell SpotClean Cordless, a UK exclusive that's modelled off the Little Green Mini), and I never panic when there's been a spillage. Within a few minutes, I can pull the mess right out of a fabric, reassured that the spill won't fester or ruin my soft furnishings.
And if you host guests during the holidays or enjoy a glass of wine by the fire, being able to remove red wine stains before they set could save your carpets from costly replacements down the line.
But perhaps the biggest benefit isn’t just better stain removal – it’s how little time it takes. Sure, you can get rid of stains with a strong brush and plenty of elbow grease, but a spot cleaner does that work for you, and much faster.
Plus, with many of us hosting family over the holidays, we don’t always have time to scrub out every spill. Bissell’s built-in spray, scrub, and suction system works fast enough that you can easily follow the rules of stain removal – treating stains immediately rather than waiting until later, when they’ve already dried and spread.
‘The Little Green Mini can reduce cleaning time associated with using a mop and cloth from approximately 15–20 minutes, to mere minutes, eliminating the need to spend considerable time scrubbing and waiting for surfaces to dry – which is especially beneficial for households with children and pets,’ shares Isabella Flores, professional organizer and cleaning expert at Sparkly Maid San Diego.
She also points out that the included cleaning formula tackles odors right at the source, preventing the sort of lingering smells that make soft furnishings feel never quite clean or make your home smell bad.
The Bissell Little Green Mini will keep furniture fresher for much longer, especially for homes with pets and kids.
Pets, of course, are a major culprit in winter mess – muddy paws, surprise accidents, and that all-too-familiar wet-dog smell that settles into everything. But this spot cleaner is one of the most high-impact winter fixes for mud.
Ali Smith, professional dog trainer and founder of Rebarkable, swears by this compact cleaner, ‘I use this for pet stains and accidents! The rugs and curtains often just need a little spot clean after a mucky walk or a puppy accident – and this is absolutely perfect for it.’
Its size is also a bigger selling point than you’d expect, as having a cleaner that's easy to grab out of a cabinet means you're more likely to use it.
‘Its size is also a genuine advantage because people tend to actually use it, instead of letting it gather dust the way bulkier machines often do,’ Petya says.
This helps protect those surfaces long-term, keeping fabrics brighter and fresher, and preventing grime from breaking down fibers over time – something you’d otherwise only see after a full deep clean carpet job.
As Isabella puts it, it stops ‘small messes from escalating into bigger problems’. No waiting for carpets to dry, no calling in specialists, and no rearranging furniture to hide a mark that just won’t budge. It fits perfectly into the things people with clean living rooms always do.
The Bissell Little Green Mini is available for $74.99, discounted from $109.99.
More to Shop
Here are a few more top recommendations to quickly clean up mess this winter, that my product review team and I rated five stars after weeks-long testing sessions.
All prices correct at time of publication.
We tested the Shark StainStriker as part of the Shark CarpetXpert package, and it was incredibly efficient at removing stains from outdoor furniture, carpets, rugs, and sofas.
Read more in our five-star review of the Shark CarpetXpert.
If you're looking for the real deal, the Bissell Revolution HydroSteam is an ultra-powerful carpet cleaner that matches the cleaning levels expected from an industrial appliance. It cleaned dog stains that were more than two years old thanks to its steam power that breaks down bacteria, and it has handheld attachments for spot cleaning.
Read more in my five-star Bissell Revolution HydroSteam review.
To remove stains from hard floors, I couldn't recommend the Dreame H14 Pro more. It's the best vacuum-mop combo we've tested, and as well as instant stain removal, it vacuums and mops at the same time, cutting your floor cleaning time in half.
Read more in my five-star Dreame H14 Pro review.
Meet the Experts
Petya Holevich is an experienced house cleaning expert with over five years of dedicated time at Fantastic Services.
Isabella Flores is a cleaning expert and professional organizer at Sparkly Maid San Diego. As a senior team member, she helps families create spotless, clutter-free homes using eco-friendly products and trusted cleaning systems.
Next, learn the carpet cleaning tips that will speed up how to make yours spotless.
