History
How Nappy’s.nl has grown with our family
On a Sunday morning in March 2015, I opened my email inbox at the kitchen table. An email catches my eye with the capitalized title 'CLOSING SALE'! The email comes from Nappy’s.nl, a web shop where I had bought a few diapers for our 9 month old son. Those diapers work well, so I open the email to check if I can get some more diapers at a discount. Then I catch some small letters: “If you are interested in taking over the web shop, please send me an email.” A flock of butterflies flutters through my stomach. Shall I do it, shall I send them an email? ‘Why not’, says Marco. ‘You can always ask for some more information.’
The First e-mail
At that moment, I had been a stay at home mother for 1.5 years after finishing my Master’s degree in Educational Sciences. Marco and I got married a week after my thesis presentation and were over the moon when I turned out pregnant very soon with our so desired first child. And even though I loved to be home with our little boy, there was something in me that wanted to do something else apart from being a mother. With butterflies all over, I wrote an email to ask for more information about taking over the diaper web shop that wanted to close down. I pressed ‘send’ and kept refreshing my inbox all morning. What if they have already found someone else, or what if I cannot afford it? I suddenly wanted this so badly!
Butterflies
Fortunately, I received a reply soon: a list of what they offer and an asking price. It sounds fantastic and I am so happy! Until I read the following: ‘We are also talking to someone else.’ Bam, the butterflies turn into stone and lay heavy on my stomach. We are emailing back and forth. I introduce myself, ask questions about the business and we arrange an appointment to meet each other next week. Meanwhile, my thoughts are all over the place. On a Sunday morning, we drive to Zuid-Holland, with the baby. Because he is sweet, cute and wears Nappy’s.nl diapers. That has got to help! We have a lovely conversation and at the end, they have already decided to sell the web shop to us. I am over the moon.
Nappy’s.nl is ours!
I registered at the Chamber of Commerce on April 1st 2015. The web shop closes temporarily to take new stock. Marco and I spend our evenings at the kitchen table, tinkering with the website. We order new stock, talk endlessly and rock our son to sleep in the meantime. Exactly one month later, we open the renewed Nappy’s.nl. A new look, new stock and a new owner. And then we wait for the first order to come in. The spark of joy it gave when the first order actually came in is hard to describe. So cool. More and more orders follow and soon, we expand our product range. We want to offer customers more than a simple pocket diaper. Orders keep coming in rapidly.
From diaper room to diaper house
At first, the diapers are stored in the linen closet in the bedroom, after which we empty out the bookcase for extra space. In the meantime, we make upstairs of our fixer-upper habitable. We move our bed upstairs, the bedroom downstairs becomes the ‘diaper room’. Together with our business, our family is also growing. We welcome our second son into the family, happiness! The diaper room surely but slowly gets stuffed to the brim, all walls are covered with shelving units up to the 3 meter tall ceiling. In the center, we have a work island filled with drawers and covered with stacks of crates. A small desk crammed in the corner. We are bursting at the seams. More and more diapers move to the bedrooms upstairs. Diaper bins are on the landing, stacked up high. Our home in Batenburg slowly but surely turns into a diaper house.
Off to Drenthe with diapers, household goods, children, dog and chickens
When I am pregnant with our third child, we decide to employ someone to help us. Nicole helps us pack orders, wipe bottoms and many other kinds of things that are needed for a young family with a home business. Meanwhile, Marco and I are looking hard to find a bigger place. In August 2018, our dream home pops up on Funda! A dairy farm near Meppel, Drenthe. During the first visit, the only thing I can think of is: ‘This is our home, our children have to grow up here and our business can expand here.’ A terribly stressful time follows, with several potential buyers and a bank that refuses financing because I have my own company. But in the end, everything turned out fine and on April 1st 2019, the day that Nappy’s.nl is ours for exactly one year, we pack our cloth diapers, household goods, children, dog and chickens to move to Drenthe.
Diaper farm
The front-house is a well-maintained private house that is ready to be moved into. The back end of the farm is still in its original state. For hundreds of years, cows have been kept there. Together with a contractor, we transform this part of the farm to a fabulous business space. Until then, we crammed the diapers in the front-house, where we lived. Every free centimeter gets used. The office is in the laundry room and the packing table in the hall, underneath the stairs. It kind of works, but it is cramped and it means searching for that one print at the bottom of that box a couple of times. My mother sighs: ‘Child, you there in that laundry room, it would be so nice if you could work in a proper space. ‘ In the meantime, we are open to applications again and finally employ Iris.
Space in our lives
A big change in our lives comes when Marco decides to quit his job in the summer of 2019 to start working for Nappy’s.nl full time. What peace arrived with that decision and how lovely for the children to have daddy at home so much. Reaching the end of the year, almost 8 months after the start of the renovation and lots and lots of builders and noise later, the business space is ready. The diapers can move out of the front-house, which makes it feel giant now. The new space in our lives, both literally and figuratively, is awesome!
Four leaf clover
In the spring of 2020, we welcome our dear daughter into our lives, the fourth leaf of our four-leaf clover! Because of the travel times, we have to say goodbye to Nicole. But just Iris for two days a week, us five (granted, seven) days a week, we hardly kept up. So in the summer of 2020 we expanded our team. In 2022, our team consists of no fewer than eight great people, whom we introduce to you here. In addition, there are also more than 50 consultants working in the Netherlands and Belgium who guide beginners in the washable diaper world. In seven years, our family and our product range have multiplied and we have gathered a fantastic team of people around us. That brief email in March 2015 turned out to be the most life-defining email ever. And those butterflies? They still flutter!
