In Los Angeles, someone — a lawyer to the rich a famous, fittingly enough — quite recently said something like: “Pretending to have unlimited resources in Beverly Hills is tough.” Imagine how it must be when you live in a more ordinary place! But a 90201 zip code is not necessary to get a decent service for house or apartment cleaning in Beverly Hills, or elsewhere in Los Angeles. This means that hiring a maid service will not be the same thing as hiring a British butler, à la Queen of England or “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” This isn’t about getting someone to wear a froofy tux and play Geoffrey everyday at your house. Everyone knows, after all, that life does not play out like a sitcom’s narrative arc.

A good Los Angeles maid service can be found by taking a quick look at some pertinently keyworded Google — or heaven-forbid, Bing — search results. Keyword correctly and you may even find insightful reviews written by folks, who like you, may not have loads upon loads of money, but still know how to budget for the important things in life — like being able to inhabit a clean indoor environment.

Maybe in olden times, these services came with personal chef capabilities, but those times are past. Today, if you want somebody to cook your food, you put out an ad and start asking for referrals. If you want a driver, you put out another ad and ask likewise. Such an arrangement is probably for the best since you don’t want an overworked labor force going through your most personal of spaces. This is why hiring someone with clearly delegated and circumscribed tasks, like a quality California house cleaning service, makes sense.

It really won’t make you feel like you’re living the high life in the City of Angels. You’ll just live more comfortably by getting some extra help one or two days out of the week from somebody who knows how to expertly clean up. You might even pick up a few tricks of the trade by osmosis and become a better cleaner yourself. Hiring a maid service in Los Angeles will not cost as much as keeping a daily butler — that’s for sure — but you will have to cook your own meals. and get your own glasses of water. Still, it’ll be more than just something!

Sam Walters is a writer living in Los Angeles. Her writing appears in print and online.