Ironing, linen and textiles in Nootdorp
For centuries Nootdorp lay on a small island of dry ground between the Noord-Nieuwland, the Ackerdijkse Bos, and the now-vanished Berkelse Meer. It was a church village, with a handful of artisanal households: the miller, the smith, and the village ironer who had a small workshop on the market square and ran half a street's worth of clean linen through her hands every Monday and Thursday.
The village ironer is an almost vanished figure, but until well into the nineteenth and even the twentieth century she existed in every South Holland village. She had a special room with a long oak ironing table, a coal stove on which six iron flatirons stood at temperature, a mangle in the back room and a range of wooden shaping cushions for cuffs and collars. The washing you did yourself or had done at the washerwoman's; but finishing, pressing and starching were work for skilled women.
Nootdorp is by now a commuter centre within Pijnacker-Nootdorp, with new districts such as 's-Gravenhout and Craeyenburg that border on Ypenburg. The old village around the Dorpsstraat is still intact, but is inhabited by younger families with two jobs and few empty evenings.
Since 2013 we have been driving out from our laundry on the Henricuskade on fixed mornings through Nootdorp. The same delivery driver, the same day, the same stack of crisply folded shirts that you put back into the wardrobe — a stack that, before, would have cost you half an evening.
How does Strijkservice Haaglanden work in Nootdorp?
For residents of Nootdorp our service works exactly as in the rest of Haaglanden: on a fixed day of the week our driver comes by, picks up your laundry bag and brings your laundry back clean and crisply ironed. No appointment needed — your routine is set.
You get one regular driver and a fixed pickup rhythm so you always know what to expect. No carrying, no full drying racks in the living room, no evenings at the ironing board.
Everything is handled in our own laundry on Henricuskade in The Hague. Shirts, blouses, table linen, bed and bath textiles — we iron it the way it should go back into the cupboard at home, neatly folded and ready to use.