Chinese people have a tradition of thoroughly cleaning their homes before Spring Festival to sweep away bad luck and welcome good fortune.

Since the word "dust" sounds similar to the word "old" in Mandarin, removing dust and trash symbolically sweeps away the old to usher in the new.

In recent years, many households have chosen to "outsource" such pre-festival home cleaning. According to 58 Daojia, a home services company, there has been a surge in demand for house cleaning services before Spring Festival. As of December 2024, the number of orders for comprehensive house cleaning services increased by 178 percent month-on-month, window cleaning orders surged by 2.7 times, and kitchen hood cleaning orders rose by 109 percent.

The rising demand for short-term house cleaning services is indicative of the rapid growth of the home services industry. Li Chao, a spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a news conference that the market size of China's household services industry has exceeded one trillion yuan ($136.5 billion), with over 30 million professionals working in the industry. But even that is not enough to meet the demand.

"As demand for elderly care and childcare continues to rise, it is estimated that there is a shortage of over 20 million household service professionals, particularly high-quality personnel with professional knowledge and skills," she said.

At the same time as the demand has soared, people have increasingly diverse and specific needs. For instance, the demand for pet-sitting services has increased by 2.7 times, that for home chefs by 11.6 times, the cleaning of rented houses by 3.3 times, and Japanese-style moving and organizing services by 1.3 times, according to the 2024 service experience report by 58 Daojia.

"Paying for services that bring happiness and joy has become a new consumption trend among the quality-oriented Generation Z, which has fueled the development of the on-demand economy," the home services company said in its report.

Changes in customer demand have spurred home services personnel to engage in training programs to enhance their professional knowledge and skills so they can offer a better service and gain a competitive edge in the market.