I Tried The “Little Green Cleaning Machine” that TikTok is in Love With — And Now I’m Smitten Too

You could say I have an eye for life-changing vacuums. I’ve gushed all about this surprisingly powerful tiny turtle hand vac and this convenient broom-vac. Now, I’m all about the Bissell Little Green, a portable upholstery and carpet cleaner. OK, so it’s not exactly a vacuum, but it does use suction to banish pesky stains (even set-in ones!). 

The BLG is beloved on Amazon (I’m talking 18,000+ reviews with a five-star average rating), but I first stumbled upon it on Cleaning TikTok (yes, that’s a thing). A few months ago, it was popping up on my For You page a few times a day, but the case study that sold me was a viral video of someone successfully sucking four-year-old coffee out of car upholstery. Siri, where’s the nearest store that sells the cleaning tool of my dreams?

I got my hands on the Little Green right before I moved out of state, so I kept it in the box until I desperately needed it for a disgusting mess our dog left on the carpet. Was the cleaner so cute that it almost distracted me from the job at hand? Yes. Did I let that stop me? Absolutely not. 

I’m admittedly not the person in our household who takes the lead on assembling IKEA furniture, and I’m grateful to say the Little Green presented no problems, from unboxing to setting up. It was also easy to prep for cleaning: Just fill up the water tank and add the accompanying solution, then turn it on and spray. The hose has a brush on it, so you can suction and scrub at the same time.

I tried the Little Green on our dog’s mess and the warm water and solution was definitely effective — after 10 minutes, the carpet was good as new. It also smelled good! I realized after the fact that the Bissell cleaning solution I used has Febreze in it for deodorizing.

It wasn’t an immediate fix, which I’m guessing was due to the nature of the mess. At the risk of giving you TMI, the dog poop had, uh, sunken into the carpet a bit. But that’s not the Little Green’s fault; I’m guessing a bit of hard work and time would be normal with any carpet cleaner. 

The best part, for me, is how convenient this thing is — it’s the perfect happy medium between cleaning something by hand with an enzyme spray and whipping out the big guns. We have an upright deep cleaner for when we need to clean the entire carpet, but it’s nice to have an equally effective option for spot cleaning. I’ll use mine on the rug, couch, and soon, beneath my kid’s carseat in our minivan. I could also see it being useful for cleaning hard-to-reach areas, like stairs and corners.