Laundry & ironing service in Zoetermeer

Zoetermeer is more than a thousand years old. In or before the tenth century a settlement of farmers and fishermen arose here in the middle of 'die Wildernisse', the vast Dutch–Utrecht swamp. Residents dug 'daliegaten' — small peat pits — to extract the clay and make their fields workable. So a village grew, slowly continuing for centuries along the Langelandse- and Zegwaartseweg, later around the Dorpsstraat.

On 15 March 1614, Jacob Oem van Wijngaerden and others received a patent to drain the Zoetermeerse Meer. With windmills the water was pumped away, and in July 1616 the lake fell dry. So the Meerpolder was created — one of the earliest reclaimed lakes in Holland, and one of the most successful. The photo above shows the Dorpsstraat, where the village around the historic buildings is still recognisable as the original medieval ribbon.

For centuries Zoetermeer remained small and agricultural, a few hundred residents around church and mill. That changed from 1962, when the national government designated the village as a 'growth core' for the Randstad. Within decades Zoetermeer grew into a city of 125,000 inhabitants, with neighbourhoods like Meerzicht, Buytenwegh, Rokkeveen and — as the last VINEX addition from the Fourth Memorandum (1988/1991) — Oosterheem. That made Zoetermeer one of the youngest 'real' cities in the Netherlands.

Living in Zoetermeer means living in one of those neighbourhoods, often with lots of greenery, wide cycle paths and a metro line to The Hague. The week is busy as everywhere; time for laundry is limited. We drive set pickup days through the municipality — Dorp, Meerzicht, Rokkeveen, Buytenwegh, Oosterheem. Your bag goes along in the morning, and comes back in the evening clean, ironed and folded with the same driver. A rhythm that fits a city running its busy schedule at modern pace.