After thinking and talking about it for over a year now, I FINALLY found a cleaning lady (in this case, a mother/daughter pair of ladies) and got my apartment professionally cleaned! None of the Yelp listings worked out, but I finally got info from my boss, who doesn't use a service but just "knows someone." The women stayed for a whopping 3-1/2 hrs and only charged $140 total (plus I added a $30 tip because I was very happy)---which was much less than anyone on Yelp.
My main concerns were my floors/rugs and throw-rugs/bathrooms---and all of the cat hair that had accumulated on my furniture and bedding and floorboards! (I've been pretty good about keeping up with countertops and fridge and microwave and inside of oven, so they didn't have to do much in the kitchen, though they did clean the ground-in grease off the oven-top.)
The place looks friggin' beautiful! I'd thought that my living-room shag carpet was a goner, just meant for carting out to the dumpster and starting over thanks to all of the cat hair and me not liking to vacuum shag rugs (because they're HARD and actually sweat-inducing to vacuum)! Nope---brought back to life. And all the cat hair along the base-boards and behind doors and within couch and chairs is all gone! (While the women were working, I snuck a look at all the cat hair they'd gathered in one spot in the hallway---a mass about the size of a basketball!) And I can now walk in my bathroom without hating myself for my laziness, and in the area outside of the spare bathroom used for cat litter without stepping all over stray litter that the cats had tracked outside of the tub! (Last year, I had bought 2 mats specifically for catching litter, but hadn't used them because I was waiting until I had thoroughly mopped the area first---and so they went unused. Immediately after the cleaners left, I laid them down!)
And then there were all the extras---most excitingly for me, I asked if they changed linens, and they did! It's always been my (sad little) fantasy to have sheets on my bed that are appropriate for the season, and I do OWN 4 nice sets of sheets (yellow/gold for Spring, cherry-ish red for Summer, coppery brown for Fall, and wine/burgundy for Winter). It's just that I didn't ever fancy the idea of changing them: (1) Because it's a pain in general, and (2) my floors always seemed dirty and where was I going to put all of the pillows and comforter while I pulled off the old sheets and put on the new ones? Plus, (3): Living alone, I often just fall asleep on the living-room couch at night, so my bed sheets really don't get very dirty since not often used. But someone else changed the sheets for me! And now I have Fall sheets on my bed for the Fall!
So, for the bargain price of $170, I got quite a HUGE psychological boost! I'm not horribly messy (I'm pretty good at picking big stuff up, good at counters, very good at keeping my fridge clean, and I'm not a neat freak, so I think I can get away with only having the cleaners over every 3 months from now on, with me only doing spot cleans in between (avoiding toilets, carpets, baseboards, and sheets almost completely).
Finally getting cleaners was definitely a good experience. I was home the whole time (though many online sites recommend that you leave to let the cleaners do their thing), but working at my computer in a corner of my apartment kept me facing the wall, so I didn't feel I was intruding on their cleaning by sitting there and WATCHING them or anything. And the two ladies were very professional and unobtrusive. (I'd initially even told them NOT to clean the area where I was working, but near the end, I asked if I could get up and go elsewhere and if they could get rid of the cat hair underneath my two tables, which they quickly did.)
There was a definite language barrier (they spoke little English, and I spoke no Spanish), but at the beginning, I just walked them around the apartment and either pointed to stuff or gestured "No" about stuff, and they figured it out. (I also knew that "cat" was "gato," so at one point when they left the front door open for a couple of minutes, I was able to gesture and say "gato"!) And at the end, there was some confusion about payment---the person on the phone that I intially set up the appointment with had said that Venmo was an option, but these ladies didn't know what Venmo was, so I ended up with an English-speaking relative of theirs on the phone and just paying with a check---yes, I made sure that my cleaning lady had a bank account and that she wrote down her exact name for me to make the check out to!
BTW: Yes, all 5 of my cats were traumatized. Under the bed is their normal hiding spot (when they hear a delivery knock at the front door, for example), but this time, because the cleaners were doing some of their work in the bedroom, they kept dodging between rooms and under/behind various pieces of furniture. Three hours later, only 3 of 5 have finally popped back out to say "hi" to me, even when treats were involved. (Sorry guys, but... Get used to it every 3 months! Your fur is partially responsible for this!) :
