Laundry & ironing service in Berkel en Rodenrijs

Berkel en Rodenrijs grew in the eleventh and twelfth centuries out of one of the biggest jobs medieval Hollanders dared tackle: draining the peat swamp. Residents dug drainage ditches across the wet land, drying it enough to keep cattle and grow grain. By 1384 a watermill already stood where Molen De Valk now stands — the photo above shows that mill in its current state. By 1472 four mills were turning here, all kept busy keeping the ever-subsiding peat dry.

During the Eighty Years' War peat was cut on a large scale in this region; the canals served as transport routes for the fuel. By the fifteenth century the land had subsided so much that water actually had to be pumped, hence those mills. Meanwhile, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a thriving horticulture developed along Berkel's canals — and later, in the early twentieth century, Berkel became known for its strawberries. An archaeologically recovered strawberry basket (with a hole in the bottom for draining juice) tells how that fruit was transported from the polder to Rotterdam markets.

In 2007 Berkel en Rodenrijs merged with Bergschenhoek and Bleiswijk into the new municipality of Lansingerland. Since then the 'B-cubed' triangle has shared one administrative roof, although each village kept its own atmosphere. Berkel itself — directly against Rotterdam-North — has grown considerably in the last twenty years, with new neighbourhoods like Meerpolder ringing the old village heart.

Living in Berkel en Rodenrijs often means choosing between a quiet polder road and a direct metro line to Rotterdam. Both are fine; neither leaves room for a laundry evening. We run set pickup days through the municipality — centre, Meerpolder, Westpolder, Rodenrijse Zoom. Your bag goes along in the morning, and comes back in the evening clean and ironed with the same driver. Same rhythm every week, in a village that has been holding back the water for seven centuries.