In Colombia and in the US we were so lucky to find some great cleaners. They treated our house and office like their own homes. Very respectful of our space and when they finished there 4 hours of work your place was zenful. Not like the mess you live in day to day. But the issue when we got to Portugal is we didn’t speak the language (we speak spanish so Colombia and US easy). We barely knew any locals and when you asked locals they wouldn’t “divulge” their connections. It was almost like they didn’t want to help but more into that later. So how did we do it. We asked an old lady who cleaned another apartment if she had a friend. Yep. that’s it. Not complex. Their is a whole immigrant community looking for work in Portugal and in most countries. They specialize in cleaning.