Exactly this! I hate doing the rounds, especially if you don't know most people. I like to mingle with different groups but it always feels kind of awkward.
Het ligt aan de mensen; als het er gezellig uitziet, ga ik iedereen langs. Als t stijfjes is, doe ik een doelloze zwaai en roep: gefeliciteerd allemaal! En duik dan in een donker hoekje met m’n taart. Leave me and My cake alone.
I am from Limburg province and we do NOT congratulate everyone in the room. It is strictly a Holland/Dutch thing. I moved to the north and was equally flabbergasted when I was expected to make a round of the room to “feliciteer” everybody.
@@johnkochen7264 klopt helemaal ik ben ook uit Limburg en kende het fenomeen ook niet. Wel feliciteerde wij in onze familie de ouders met hun zoon of dochter, maar niet de hele feestbende. Volgens mij doen ze dit 'iedereen feliciteren ' in Brabant en Gelderland ook niet.
I appreciate my separate toilet. I like to keep my visitors out of my bathroom. Another positive aspect: the toilet is available when the bathroom is occupied.
I think most houses these days have two bathrooms but not necessarily near the front of the home like in the Netherlands. In the US the bathrooms tend to be further back in the house usually near the bedrooms. I figure perhaps the Dutch do this so that guest don't go into other areas of the house. It's like a privacy thing.
@@andrewdennis0 I think it is smart. You get home from work after biking and yes I am grateful the toilet is right there and gives you a place to wash hands when come in. Old homes they are by the back door mud room hall. Weather, snow and rain.
@@Saskia-uz4ds bathroom in the US can refer to just the toilet as well. Typicallyv we refer to it as a half bathroom when there is only a sink and toilet
Thanks so much for the mention and the link! I think that the independence that children have here is my absolute favourite thing in the Netherlands ... and that's saying a lot, because there's a lot I like about the Netherlands. :)
We've just had our first and I'm definitely happy about bringing her up in The Netherlands, the independence of children there is so fantastic to see :)
A bedroom next to the front door feels weird to me. What if you have an intruder in the house...they first come in where you sleep. Having the toilet away from the living/cooking area seems smart. The toilet tends to be located underneath the stairs. Its just ideal for that small space.
I live in a house that was converted from a store about 50 years ago so my toilet isn't near a door but everywhere else I have lived there has always been a toilet near the front or back door and the only time I've ever seen a bedroom near the front door is when there's a bungalow and the front door leads straight into the hallway
I think the fact that there is 'too much' room in Australia has to do with it. When I was in Mildura, Victoria in 2003, I learned that it was prohibited there to built additional floors on your house. So knowing that, it does make sense that the whole setup of the house is different...
Due to the weather you don,t come straight in the living but in the hal, there you have the stairs, the utillitymeters, a place to hang your coat and the toilet. I think it makes sense.
Indeed, the hall is warm/cold air sluice. The toilet fits under the stairs, with some privacy from the living room. The lower part of the stairs is usually a closet and above is the bath room further keeping the plumbing short, it's also not in the way of daylight entering the parts of the house where it's more appreciated. So it's all about saving, saving heat, saving daylight, saving space, saving plumbing and saving embarassement.
I also feel like the Dutch idea of what a toilet/bathroom is differs from the concept Australians/Americans may have. From my experiences abroad it seemed rather normal to have a toilet near your bedroom, and not having it might be considered inconvenient. In NL most people have their bedrooms upstairs, and it's almost considered a luxury to have an upstairs bathroom, too
It's also a hygiene thing, dutch building codes require the toilet not to be directly connected to other living spaces such as the living room. So therefore the toilet is in the hallway.
@@hendrikusscherphof7348 we always had two. In our first house it was in the actual bathroom, in our current home (which my parents had built from scratch) we have a seperate toilet. I would indeed feel inconvinienced if I had to go to the toilet downstairs everytime I had to go, but just wanted to sleep. I'd say if I were properly awake, it wouldn't bother me that much tho
I'm 20 years old and native dutch and I absolutely hate the congratulate everyone custom. I never know what to do or say and I rarely participate in congratulating everyone myself.
My mom always taught me (because of my autism and social anxiety) that just waving hi and loudly saying "gefeliciteerd met [persoon] iedereen!" was also perfectly polite
@@alexej8175 Well you got to love the covid rules that made it for me easier or atleast normalized it more to just wave and say goodday or happy whatever.
Our traffic system is one of the safest on Earth. Dutch parents know what they are doing. Their safety is in alertness and being just good in riding bicycles. We’ve spent a lot of attention to slow down traffic in suburban areas. And children know the dangers, because they are confronted with traffic dangers from a young age on, just because Dutch parents put them on a small bike and start to expose them to traffic. In this subject you also see the hyper practical mentality of us Dutch back. The kids are just put in traffic like it is normal, but parents tell them everything along the way. Just do it, nothing is risk free, but without experience with danger, the danger becomes worse.
I totally agree! “Een gewaarschuwd mens telt voor twee”. It is betrer to know the danger and how to beat it, then to suddenly being confronted with it and suffer from it.
you also have to take into account that even though it all looks chaotic, cities are organized in such a way that traffic is actually heavily controlled - for instance, brick and narrow roads in residential neighbourhoods, elevated sidewalks (including a bump to slow down the cars as they turn into the smaller streets), clearly marked bike lanes, etc. There's a lot of emphasis put on awareness, bikes and pedestrians in road law and driving lessons as well. On top of that, like op says, Dutch people learn to navigate traffic (to an extent) from a very young age and adults are aware that kids might just pop out of a side road on their bikes. That's not to say accidents don't happen obviously but so far as I know the Netherlands are not any more dangerous than anywhere else if not safer.
Our hyper practical mentality is my favourite Dutch cultural trait. My second favourite being our national pastime of complaining (which sort of follows our practicality. Things can't get better if you don't first talk about them) and our appreciation for directness.
I don't agree 100%. In general it's true but I have had to shout to warn a dad on a bike with his daughter on his shoulders who started crossing the wibautstraat as the light went green, didn't look to the side and didn't notice a taxi running a red light almost hitting them. I like our general approach to traffic but there can be some nonchalance and excessive trust in drivers and bikers following the rules rather than driving/biking defensively
Toilets, there is a regulation in the Netherlands that force there are at least two doors between a toilet and the living area (kitchen, living room, bedroom). Due to this regulation it is makes sense to put the toilet in the hallway, which is mostly at the front door. So it is a combination of regulations and a simple appliance of this. When the toilet would be placed at the living room, it means there must be a small hallway between the toilet and the living room, losing more space.
That boy misheard “gecondoleerd” (I’m sorry for your loss) and took it for the “gefeliciteerd” (congratulations), because it seems the same thing and sounds the same so they just don’t notice the difference. I have heard many children (including my own) say gefeliciteerd at a funeral or in private and the parents looking like “let’s have a short conversation “
Prople will immediately notice you didn’t know and won’t hate you for it. A funeral is a very intense moment and people will make ”nervous” mistakes...no offence taken.
I use this system: Birthdays: Congratulate the birthdayboy/girl on their birthday, the family on their son/daughter/brother/sister/etc birthday, and everyone else for being a part of the occasion. Weddings: Congratulate the bride/groom on their wedding, the families on the addition to their family and everyone else for being a part of the occasion. It's a boy/girl party: Congratulate the parents on having a child, the family on becoming a grandmother/father, uncle/aunt etc, and everyone else for being a part of the occasion. That way I can conform to social convention without my brain going "this is illogical".
That’s right: only congratulate the family, close relatives and their partners (when they are not married). At a funeral you say “gecondoleerd” to these people. And… having the toilet by the front door makes sense: coming from outside/coming home it is often the first thing you do, probably after hanging your jacket on a hook next to the toilet😀. Also, in Australia having the bedrooms in the front makes sense as people are more focussed on their backyards. In Holland this would not work: firstly, as you said we normally have them upstairs because of plot limitations, and secondly, we wouldn’t be able keep an eye on the children playing in the street (and on the neighbours😀)! P.S. we lived in Melbourne for three and a half yrs.and had a very good time there.
I believe we have a rule that a toilet door cannot directly exit into the living room (due to hygiene). That means the toilet has to exit in the hallway basicly, and that is also where the front door normally is :).
I think its because we need to let a person use the toilet when they ask for it at the door, we can't refuse according to the law so then they don't come completly in your house
Het toilet naast de voordeur betekend ook dat er vaak een raampje zit in de muur naast de voordeur. Dat is een makkelijke manier om het toilet te ventileren. ( te luchten)
i think we cycle without helmets and children don't wear helmets on bikes bc we learn to cycle when we are very very young. I mean 2 years old with side weels for support and almost everyone can cycle at 6 yo.
it's also because of the type of bikes we have. We sit up pretty straight on them, which results in very different injuries as opposed to mountain/city bikes in which you lean forward more. Countries that aren't bike friendly almost exclusively have fast bikes on which you lean forward, so if an accident happens your head is in much more danger. That and the fact that most of the cycling we do is on a bicycle path seperate from roads with cars, so accidents are again less serious than in non-cycling countries.
A common lay-out for a Dutch house is that the more private areas such as the bedrooms and the main bathroom are on the first floor and the living areas (living room, kitchen) where you would usually receive guests are on the ground floor. To prevent guests from having to go to the first floor to use the toilet, it is common to have a separate toilet in the hallway near the front door that they can use.
I'm dutch and congratualating everyone to me kinda feels like showing your happy for the other people to have that person (who' s bday it is) in their lives. And about the young children, being independent is a important thing in dutch culture. :)
As a child, we were allowed to come to the playground in the area by ourselves from the age of 6. From the age of 8, 9 or 10, children cycle to school by themselves (depending on how far away they live of course). As to road safety and cycling, everyone is very aware of what to do and what not to do when cycling, so it might appear unsafe for the untrained eye, but it's not as bad as it looks once you're in on the rules etc I think. :)
It's so much fun to hear your perspective because as a Dutch native I don't always think about the things that are strange to foreign people. Thank you for sharing
Honestly, one good thing about Covid is that I no longer have to go round the 'kring' and say happy birthday to other people. God I hate it, it's so awkward. Hopefully when Corona is over and we can go to birthday parties again it will not come back.
I hate it too, that is why i stopped doing this a long time ago. Now i only shake the hand/kiss the birthday boy/girl. To all the other people i just say hello.
Oh I think it's horrible too, but everyone looks to you like, why did you just sit down? If you don't congratulate everyone. I usually just shake a few people's hands and try to sit down quietly so no one sees me... Although I don't think it works (I'm usually really awkward at birthdays because of those things)
@@annelipluister1929 Honestly ever since I've turned thirty I just don't care anymore. I wave at people, I say hello and say happy birthday. If there is someone new I might go and say hello but otherwise I just don't care. When it comes to close family and friends I always do the 3 kisses (not now of course) but extended family, like my sister-in-laws family, and acquaintances I just say hello and wave.
Growing up I also didn't like doing this, now I just don't lol. I just shout gefeliciteerd into the room after congratulating the person whose birthday it is and nobody cares.
Over the years I have seen many The-Dutch-Do-Weird-Thing-Video's but yours is the first one that is spot on. Gefeliciteerd with that ! By the way, as a Dutch guy, I can still remember playing in the street as a kid. We would yell "Auto !" every now and then when a car approached us. We stood aside and after it had passed we were back playing in the streets... Ah, die goede ouwe tijd... Cheeeeeeers, Jecepede
I think in very old houses, the toilet is added to the house at the back, often connected to the kitchen. As for the toilets next to the front door, the Dutch regulations are that a toilet can never be adjacent directly to a living room, so there always have to be 2 doors between a toilet and a living room. Since often the hallway is already separated from the living room with a door, putting the toilet next to the frontdoor is convenient.
Actually it's 2 doors away from the kitchen, read health regulations, and probably, close to front door, because of length of piping needed. Closer to the street, read underground sewage would be cheaper to build.
@ Casey: I believe the combination of these 3 answers, is the best explanation to your question of the toilet location. From a personal point, I also dislike congratulating everybody with the whole kissing etc. Usually I just shout out and congratulate all at once and be done with it , who knows in 20/30 years time this tradition has changed with the new generation.
A toilet in the hallway is also convenient because the hallway is connected to all other rooms in the house. So from any room you can get to the loo without having to cross another room disturbing the people who happen to be / work / sleep / play there.
Not only easier but cheaper and less resource demanding. And there are ventilation benefits, although I am sure that wasn't a design choice for that reason.
and a lot of the time it also fits under the stairs or fits in the room with the stairs. ventilation. most people in the Netherlands don't want to sleep on the street side so you need to put something in the front.
'Gefeliciteerd' and a 'felicitatie' is a 'gelukswens' a wish for good luck. At a birthday party you share the good luck wishes with each other and the one whose birthday it is.
Indeed. At a birthday party, everybody congratulates everybody else. And no, in new houses the toilet is next to the front door too. That arrangement saves space in other rooms. Most of the time, there’s another toilet on the second floor in the bathroom.
Yes, I was wondering whether "gefeliciteerd" is not an exact translation of what we think when we say "congratulations" - rather it might be as if you said "happiness!"?
@@myotherchannel2729 you might be right! It always fascinates me when we are trying to translate from one language into another if it concerns a “feeling”-word. It is mostly very cultural. “Gezellig” and “leuk” are very hard to literally translate as well. Or try to explain the difference between “leuk” and “mooi” in dutch.
0:54 The toilet near the front door is the result of a small country with a high demand for landspace. Land is very expensive and when building more narrow terrace houses makes them a lot cheaper to build. And with that there is basically just two possible locations for the toilet on the ground floor. Near the entry is generally the best use of the space on the ground floor. That and combined with the fact that the sewer connection exits the house underneeth the front door towards the street, and thus there is less change of blockages with the toilet connections to the sewer as close to the main sewer as possible.
We grow up riding bikes, it comes as natural as walking Here the trafic rules are in favor of its weakest participant and most bikelanes are seperated from other trafic It's organised chaos, so be mindfull of your surroundings
Yes, she definitely needs to see the channel Not Just Bikes ua-cam.com/channels/0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A.html The Netherlands have a tremendous road safety by design. It is much safer to travel on our roads than in almost all other countries. People wearing helmets would improve safety ever so slightly, but nothing beats good road design.
The toilet is in the hallway is because of the "Woningwet" (housinglaw) from 1901. It states a toilet is only allowed inside a house (back then toilets were outside) if the door doesn't lead you into a living area. As the hallway is not considered a living area it is a suitable place to put the toilet.
Regarding the toilet: I know in the US (and maybe in Australia as well) it's common that when you step through the front door, you step right into the living room. In the Netherlands you won't see that anywhere. We are used to having a tiny room called a "hal" behind the front door, where you can hang your jacket and put your shoes away (if you want to). And then there's a door from the hal to the living room. You will find this situation in almost every house. And we think it makes sense to have the door to the toilet in the hal as well. So usually the "hal" has 3 doors: one from outside, one to the living room, and one to the toilet. And usually the stairs that lead to the first floor/bedrooms is there as well. Of course there is also a bathroom in the house (with a bath and/or shower), but that's usually upstairs, and you don't send people upstairs if they just need to go to the toilet. Again, YMMV, but this is the most common layout. Regarding gefeliciteerd: yeah I agree it's a bit strange to congratulate everyone else. It doesn't always happen at every party... some people do it, some people don't. It's a bit 50/50. To stay on the safe side, you can say gefeliciteerd to his/her family (parents, spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend, and their kids) and just say hi to everyone else at the party. Bike helmets are for tourists that don't know how traffic works here. And for speed cyclists. ;-)
- Toilets next to the front door is exactly the opposite of an old house thing. In old houses it tends to be in the back of the house. Often in an extension because the original house didn't have a toilet inside. It's only since houses were build or renovated with toilets in mind that they were put next to the front door. But it only makes sense; if a delivery guy or such needs to use the toilet it's right there, you don't have to let them go through your entire house. The hall and toilet are more public areas, everything else is more private. It doesn't make sense to have a bedroom - the most private room in the house apart from the bathroom - right next to the public street/entrance. Apart from everything else I'd feel very uncomfortable having people walking right along my bedroom window all the time, let alone street noise. I want that room to be as far away from the street as possible. (and of course, you don't care if a toilet receives street noise). Usually the living room or kitchen are next to your front door, as these are less private. It's normal to invite, say, your accountant into your living room, but they have no business with your bedroom. Friends might cook in your kitchen, but normally have no reason to go to your bedroom. This is all a natural evolution from the time that people lived in great halls. Once they started making separations the extra rooms were the most private while the hall remained public. In fact old houses used to have 2 living rooms: a front fancy living room that was only used to receive important people, and the back private living room where you actually lived yourself all year round and receive friends and family. As society became less hierarchical (the doctor and pastor are now just people, not special people to revere) the separation disappeared and of course the doorzon (through sun) design came into use having your living room run from the front to the back of the house with both front and back windows letting light in. The entrance hall is what used to be the only main hall in a house, everything else is organised according to privacy mostly. If you find this topic interesting I'd suggest reading Bill Bryson's book At Home. - actually, you normally congratulate family. Not friends, unless they're so close friends they're considered family maybe. And really a lot of people will just get in the room, congratulate 1st degree family and call out congratulations in general to the rest as everyone basically hates going around the entire room or if you're already there getting constantly interrupted by people going around the room. And with weddings the custom is that the married couple and 1st degree relatives are at the entrance of the partyhall and receive guests and get congratulated there. At least with every wedding I've ever been to. Though maybe it's different regionally. - it makes no sense to wear helmets on a bike. It doesn't add to safety really as it's extremely unlikely you'll actually hit your head if you ever fall, it actually hinders your ability to observe other traffic, and a study done by a Dutch professor showed that cars will pass closer by when you're wearing a helmet (probably because subconsciously you look to be safer) and thus actually _increasing_ the likelihood you'll get in an accident. Apart from that, our entire infrastructure is designed for bike safety (e.g. physical separation of foot traffic, bikes, cars) and our bikes have a safer design (sitting upright), which is way more effective and something sorely missing in other countries, which is why they have to make due with things like a helmet because it's so much more likely you'll get in an accident.
Basic dutch houses: Behind the front door you'll find the hallway. This connect to the living room, kitchen toilet, 'meterkast' (utilities closet), stairs and the trapkast (stair cupboard) or cellar. Having as much distance between the kitchen and the toilet is probably why the toilet is placed next to the front door.
The toilet next to the front door comes from the grown custom to using the hallway as a utility area. The hallway started as a barrier between the cold outdoor and warm indoor so the cold doesn't flow into the living space, and provided the ideal area to put the stairs to the upper floor. When private plumbing was introduced houses needed to be retrofitted but adding another room was weird and costs precious space so the already existing space underneath staircases was easy to convert into a toilet. This grew into the custom of having the toilet in the hallway in a separate cubicle. another place in older houses where it was put is in the back, near the kitchen. Especially older workers housing (1900-1950 or so) had a sort of pantry or boot room there and as the front hallway was often too small in these houses, that area was used for the toilet. It made sense as it was mostly already used as a washing up room when people came back from their dirty jobs. Many of these houses still have full bathrooms there.
I find it weird that those other people didn't introduce themselves. If I go to a party I will say 'gefeliciteerd' to everyone but still, if there is someone I don't know, I will start by introducing myself.
Nothing wrong with that. It's normal to know with who you are dealing with. Nothing more awkward as people who sit next to you without saying anything.
When I lived in Canada I was really surprised how little freedom (young) children get there. I was so used to always be outside, or go to the pool without parents, even from a really young age. To me parents seem over protective when they don't let their children go out on their own (so I guess this goes both ways haha)
Plus not wearing helmets while biking in holland is logical, because we have clycling tracks everywhere. So riding a bike is not as dangerous as everywhere else.
That’s nowadays. Back in the 90’s and 2000’s we were free to roam the streets. We always played outside cause we didn’t really have many video games and the video games we had weren’t that good. It was a different time back then. Nowadays kids stay inside and play fortnight.
The way i understand it ( not 100% sure though) if some one asks to use the toilet. They don't have to get into the actual house if the toilet is just behind the front door.
That's indeed one reason. Also you don't need to lay the biggest sewer pipes through the whole house and at most houses it's the place under the stairs
Houses in the Netherlands have a compact layout, and are costs effectively built. Toilet at the front door means that your water inlet and your sewer outlet can be the shortest, because it is planned at the street side of the house. Many stuff in The Netherlands makes sense if you look to it through the most handy and costs effective glass.
Explanation for the toilet! The type of home that was most commmonly builtin the twentieth century was the 'doorzonwoning' or - roughly translated - 'sunthroughhouse'. The main feature with this type of home is that the livingroom spans the entire length of the ground floor, with windows in the front and back, so the sun can 'shine through'. Earlier in the century, kitchens were a functional space and closed off from the living space. The kitchen was usally in the back, with a door to the garden for practical acces to the garden (for veggies). Since the ground floor was only about 6 meters wide and 7 to 9 meters long, the only space left for a toilet was in the hallway, with the stairs for the floor above (in older homes, before the seventies, under the staircase there's usually a mini cellar for storing food). Mid eighties the layout changed somewhat. With working women, fewer kids and better appliances, needs changed. The garden was nonlonger a practical space, but an extension to a living space. Kitchens moved to the front, next to the hallway, in an open set up to entertain guests. The living space became mkre square often with large windows facing the garden. The toilet just stayed where it had been, because dutch people are used to it.
Having the toilet next to the front door is kinda handy, when you’ve just hurried home in the nick of time. Master bedrooms don’t do the trick quite as well 🙂 It might be a relic from when you’d put out the nightsoil bucket in the street for a cleaner to pick it up. Or even earlier, when you’d just empty it into the canal. An urban thing
I've never even thought about the toilet by the front door. But when someone you don't know that well asks is they can use your toilet, the don't have to come through the whole house to get there... And there is usually a hallway (never got the house plans where you directly enter the living room without the hallway. You want to keep the cold/heat in/out...) so it is just a good use of space.
It used to be in old building-rules that at least 2 doors had to be in between a toilet and a living-area (e.g. Living room/kitchen). This was believed to be partially because of sound-regulation regarding installations. The central ventilation had to be at least 2 doors away from a living area (or in wider sense, 'staying'-area (verblijfsruimte)). The text basically was "a toilet can't open into a living area" and "Toilet needs to be within 3 meters height of an entrance and 25 meter distance from an entrance"(so ground or 1st floor) and "The toilet is reachable from a closed off, communal or non-communal traffic route". The backdoor could also count, but usually dutch smaller houses dont have a laundry-room, e.g. not 2 doors between kitchen and toilet. The law was dropped around the year 2003 somewhere. For Bars and Restaurants however, this was in the rules until 2017, and then finally dropped. (TMI, TL;DR is, it was organised by law that the toilet needed to be close to the front-door)
I like the fact very much, that it is very important to congratulate the parents of the one who's birthday it is, especially the mother as she had to go through a lot of trouble during the first 9 months of that person's life and especially the giving birth process on that day that is remembered.
I love the shock about the toilet. There are several reasons, but the most plausible is that before sewage the loo was in front of the house because barrels in which the sewage was collected were once a week emptied and was easy reachable. No need transporting them through the entire house. Nowadays the main sewer pipe usually enters the house at the frontdoor. Next to the entrance of the crawling space with the water meter. Also the other utilities enter the house at the front to get accessable in the meter closet.
Toilets at the front are cheaper to build, less plumbing required. The only legal demand is that the has to be an extra door between the toilet door and the living room. On birthdays, you not only visit the one whose birthday it is, you visit everybody in the house. Everybody is hopefully glad that that person has his/her birthday so, it is only natural to congratulate everybody in the room. It also breaks the ice and if you are new to the family, it gives you the chance to introduce yourself. Like: Gefeliciteerd, ik ben een vriend/vriendin van de jarige. Then the other will introduce him/herself also and you instantly know who is who and you are also instantly taken into the group. I think not congratulating everybody is a bit clinical (but hey, it is my culture).
No, you congratulate the person and say hi to the rest. That should be enough... I've had people call me (for anything) but before the actual talk congratulate me with their partners birthday.. never understood that...
So the thing with toilets: Decades ago, before we had public sewers, there was a profession called 'putjesschepper'. The putjesschepper was someone who came to your house once in a while to empty your toiletwaste that was all stored beneath the toilet seat. Since you don't want that person to walk through your entire house with buckets full of shit, the toilets were mostly located next to the frontdoor. Even though we are all connected to a sewer for years (or in some remote areas a septictank) the toilet next to the frontdoor just stayed with us.
I really like the congratulating everyone at a party. It breaks the ice and when you’re at a party where you don’t know anyone you at least spoke to everyone. I use it to decide who to sit next to and who to avoid at the party. Also when the party is gotten big enough that not everyone looks at you when you enter I just don’t do the round.
The congratulations on birthdays even happen on Face Book, the first time I learned about that I laughed so hard, I thought they were joking. I live in the neighbouring country Belgium where we speak Flemish (pretty similar to Dutch) but we NEVER do that. Only the birthday-person gets congratulations.
Toilets are by the front door because that's were our hallway is. If you enter by the front door you come in to the hall way with all entry's to the living room, dining room, kitchen, brakercloset and also the toilet. We often only have one bathroom with a toilet, bath, shower and sink upstairs next to the bedrooms for everyone to use upstairs.
The reason why the toilets in simple terraced houses are next to the front door is that they can easily be ventilated with fresh air that way. There is a small window next to the front door in many cases. In traditional houses from the sixties and before the ground floor was too limited to situate the toilet elsewhere to an outer wall.
Why is that a problem, Dutch people who meet someone for the first time ar somenones birthday party are used to introduce themselves as well. Avoids little secret conversationd like ”who’s that? And what’s he/she doing here?”
In the Netherlands we usually have multi store houses: We always ran the risk of flooding so to prevent people waking up while drowning most bedrooms are on the first (or higher) story. This means that we need a stairwell; stairwels in the livingroom would waste a lot of heat (winters were cold here). So most stairs are put in the walled off area attached to the front door we call "de hal" ("corridor" might be the closest I can translate it to, but seems somewhat off). To make the best use of "de hal" and to prevent other rooms from having the nasty odor AND allowing for a window in the toilet to air it out; the best place to put it would be next to the front door. It usualy comes with some kind of cellar/cabinet under the stairs as wel :)
as a Canadian in Holland the first thing you notice after getting off the plane ... Is the Low clouds// flat roof feeling ... That nice blue dome effect is missing ... // second : crossing the street // two skips and your already there... people will complain "having to go alllll the way to city center by foot?!".. like a 6 min wal;k ??... The toilets near the front door: Old school build... cus it then can have a window for ventilation ... from times where there was no electricity nut mainly cause of the "waterwall"" / wetwall... all the water plumbing runs behind the same wall.. so the upstairs washroom is directly above downstairs toilet// One thing that freaks dutch people out abroad is the fact that like in canada the frontdoor opens into the living room??? .. .. also left over from old days i guess.. wet cold country .. so the hall way is like a wetroom for clothing and gear to not dragg it into the house.. PS the gefeliciteerd at a bday party ..is actually only for family members like parents / partner ...not really supposed to be for everyone at the party to say... you would say it to the parents but not friends... your HI I AM... worked just fine as a universal answer cus you were "new"to the group setting and needed to introduce yourself also ..
I’d say toilets are placed near the entry so that guests (especially the ones you don’t know) can use them without having to go through the entire house. The bathroom (mostly upstairs) usually has one too, and will be used by family members (whose bedrooms are also upstairs). Furthermore, as some Dutch houses (especially the old ones) tend to be multiple stories high (though narrow) with steep staircases, it’s convenient to have one downstairs too.
Hi I can answer your question with the toilet by the frontdoor. As an architect you are aware of space and space wasting. So we clumb together all the small rooms so that there is more space for the bigger rooms. The entrance, staircase, toilet and the room with the meters are usely clumbed together.
The toilet is by the front door especially in houses in a row. It makes it possible to have a small window in the front wall, which mostly stays open to let in fresh air. But also there are houses which have the toilet all the way in the back, with a window in the back wall, for the same reason.
@@afriend9428 Nonsense. Those windows are small and up so high that nobody can look in. Not covered up with anything because they are still standard even in new Dutch houses.
The house were I lived as a child was build at the end of the 1980's and has a toilet in the hallway which was where you came in. First was the electric/water appliance closet or whatnot, meterkast we call it. And then the toilet. We also had one upstairs in the bathroom. it was truly the coldest room in the whole house, all the time, even when it was 40 degrees outside. The appartment I am living in now, build 1950's, is also having a toilet next to the entry.
I am Dutch and have lived in Switzerland for 35 years. I am married to a Swiss person, and the look on my mother in law's face deserves an Emmy award when I first congratulated her with her daughters birthday. I kept doing it over the years and the Swiss around me got used to it. They probably still think it is just weird old Dutch Ronald. Can you do a video about the culture difference between you and your partner? After being together with my wife for ~30 years, we still have 'issues' with those! I thought they would go away - they don't! BTW - love your videos, The 'algorithm' about language got me to your channel, I learnt Swiss German early on, and like in your case, it opened the world to me (ie. the Swiss one for me). In one of my videos I subtitled the Swiss German and I got a comment: sounds like weird Dutch!
In Europe there was a rule that stated there needed to be two doors between the living room/kitchen and the toilet. The hallway is in most houses the first room behind the front door so the kitchen and the toilet are two doors away.
So funny to hear about the “congratulate everyone” thing☺️ Im Dutch and live in the province of Limburg and we dont do that here at all😂 I remember being very confused when i went to a birthday party up north when everyone started to congratulate me with my friend
I never say gefeliciteerd to anyone but the person celebrating their birthday, at most to their parents, but that is it. To me it is such a strange habit to say that to everyone (and I am Dutch). Besides that I feel it takes away a bit of the special moment it is for the one celebrating their birthday. But yeah, I guess I am the weird one, because I am the only one doing this at the parties I go to.
Me neither. I live in the south of the Netherlands and never knew this is common in Holland. To me it feels a bit strange. Why congratulate every person present on a birthday party? Very strange.
There are general building rules (it used to be Bouwbesluit, I don't know what it's called now) which say what the minimum rules for building houses etc.are. One of the hygiene & liveability rules is that there need to be two doors (i.e. a sort of airlock) between a toilet and a room where people spend time, like a living room or bedroom or kitchen. This avoids smell and noise etc. from the toilet polluting the living room and bedrooms and kitchen. That's why a toilet (downstairs, where visiting company can also use it), and a bathroom (often with a second toilet, upstairs near the bedrooms) are always located off a hallway. As downstairs there is usually a hallway located between the front door and the living room or kitchen (to keep the warm inside in winter and not let the cold in), that is where the toilet will be located as well. Fitting it under the stairs is just an efficient use of space, where possible. Houses built before the Bouwbesluit might not have this hallway, but then the really old houses tended to get the toilet added on later, at the back or side, when outhouses disappeared - that often created some distance too.
Spot on observations, haha. Okay, here are my explanations as a Dutch person. Toilets are next to the front door so that guests can use your toilet without having to cross through the rest of the house. I think. Congratulating everyone at a birthday party seems to me to be a fairly recent development. When I was younger, say ten years ago, I don't recall this to happen so much. I remember my first parties where everybody congratulated me. It felt very strange. It has become very common nowadays. I always thought it was some kind of American influence or so. The trick to avoid the birthday awkwardness is to say loudly when you enter: "Hi, everyone congratulations!", smile, look around the room and wave, and you're done :). That reminds me of one of my own cultural mistakes when I lived in Australia. At most shops the person behind the counter would say hello and ask me how I was doing. For the first few weeks, I would give an honest answer and explain why I was doing well/not so well. Then I figured out that they were not actually interested in how I experienced my time in Australia, but were just being polite. And the only answer I needed to give was: good, thank you, and yourself?
The hall is the sluice to keep not just warmth / cold outside but also functions as an area where to leave outdoor things like shoes and coats. It is more hygienic that way because you don't walk all the mud and rain with you into the living room. Making the toilet in the hall area is a space convenient solution because there is usually space left under the stairs and it is part of the hygiene. You don't want to the toilet to open up into the living room or kitchen for hygiene reasons. The hallway is a sluice to keep dirt as well as coldness/heat out of the living area. There is often a sort of scullery between the kitchen and backyard as well for the same reason.
In my experience, congratulating everyone at a party sometimes does also include briefly introducing everyone to eachother, or at least how they are related.
The toilet subject: the front door usually leads to a hallway as an extra compartment to keep wind and cold out. This is the best place for a toilet in order not to have the toilet in the livingroom. The hallway is in most cases small 2 or 3 square meters, so the toilet automatically ends up next to the front door. It has another benefit: the main sewers are in the middle of the street and this way the piping from the toilet to the sewer is the shortest. It is economic, But in larger (deeper) houses you often see the toilet further up the hall, often under the stairs.
About your curiousity of the toilets placed at the frontdoor. The thing I could imagine why, is that back in the days when there was no proper sewers, then people had to do their businesses in a bucket. And that bucket will then again pick-up by a professional once or twice a week. So it was out of convenience that the toilet was placed at the frontdoor. If that was not the cause, then imagine yourself in a situation when this professional would come one or twice into your home, have to grab the bucker from somewhere in your house, walking back with the risk of falling and excidently spilling things on the floor, and leaving a pleasant smell throughout the house. But nowadays, we got sewers, there is no need to place at the frontdoor but I guess it just grown into the daily life.
I'm not convinced. Maybe that's because I know that in Friesland, the toilet was (usually) several meters from the house. Also, as someone else said, with plumbing it actually is convenient to have them close to the outside.
@@607 Well... You talk about Friesland that always stands out from the rest of the Netherlands. But cities in the olden days could not have toilets outside as Friesland could. So a system was created that a "professional" would take care of your business each week until he got replaced by a sewerpipes... So you could say that the "professional" was the sewerpipe but in human form. So I am not convience that it has to do of cost-effective reasons. This profession has even a name (I just looked it up): strontschepper or stronttonnetjesschepper. This profession stoped existing somewhere after WW2. But still, even if the sewer was installed in each house, you might still have a problem with ventilation. So opening a window was a basic thing to do, if someone had a bigger business than he or she though. But the smell needed some time to escape. So placing a toilet near a kitchen or dining erea, was a bit... disgusting... as it is like farting while having diner. And placing it near the leaving room... I can imagine you are trying to relax in the leavingroom, but you hear someone on the toilet stressing on his or her business... It is unconfortable for both parties. So it the next place would be near the staircase at the frontdoor. Usually, the hallway is a separete erea from the livingroom, kichtchen and dining erea. It can also create a feeling of privacy and you could take your time doing your business. Unless, someone suddenly rings the bell and you are the only one present that should open the door but being in the middle of your "zen" moment.
@@Litl_Skitl Hm, I doubt it. Moreover, that only works if you enter through the front door. :P Many people have houses where they enter by the back door or garage by default, especially because the bicycle is a very common means of transportation.
About the toilets at the front door, espescially in case of appartment buildings. You've got your staircase, that leads to your front door, there's usually a hallway before the 'rooms' start. In that hallway you'll see the toilet, it's conveniënt to build and the room doesn't require a window. Daylight is a scarce rescourse in the winter.
Always fun listening to people discuss the hectic roads mixed with bike, cars, and trams. As a transportation engineer Amsterdam and Netherlands in general is one of, if not the safest city in the world when it comes to transportation. You mentioned the lack of people wearing helmets. Studies have shown helmets save lives, not for bicyclist but for motorist. If you want to be safe, wear a helmet driving and bike without in Amsterdam.
When I was younger we used to have a shoelace through the front door with which you could open the door by pulling on it. Super easy to get in. But nowadays you don't see them any longer because of the unsafety these days.
Those were the days. I got my key to the house at twelve. Before that, when we went to play outside, you would put 'het touwtje door de brievenbus' if you forgot, you had to wait for your mother to come home.
Toilets near the front door, and even the first floor bathrooms often on the front side of the house, are simply because the sewer is under the street, and so is the watermain. So it's just efficient. Now if you check some older homes, mine is from 1921, so not even that old, the home were built without plumbing. They used to have an outhouse in the backyard. Later on they would add a structure to the back of the house, building into the yard, and that's where the bathroom and toilet will be situated.
@1:30 both usually its below the central bathroom in the centre of the house for plumbing reasons but its also the general/guest bathroom as opposed to the main bathroom which tends to have a toilet as well, so you would have your entry hall with to the side either a fore-house or the foreside of the main living, or in some cases the kitchen, then the hallway usually takes you to the option to go into that living(with kitchen) a room at the back or take the stairs up, the toilet usually is near the stairwell
by building code the toilet must be reachable without crossing the living room from anywhere in the house (except the front door... ) or if so, there must be an extra toilet to comply to this. As bedrooms are upstairs, as is a bathroom, the separate toilet gets to be in the hallway. Most houses have the front door coming out in the hallway at ground floor for convenience for most ppl spend their evening in the living room the toilet is therefore by default on the ground floor. As a hallway is often seen as wasted space, those are often build with the smallest size in mind, and therefore close by the front door making the gap useful that is there for the width of the stairs. Basicallyy its floor space optimization reasons. This leads to a very "standard" row of things that are on the outer wall of the house: Hallway, stairs to upper floor, cabinet under the stairs, toilet under the stair landing or before the stairs at the door, ending up into the kitchen on the backside or the door into the livingroom where the kitchen is on the front and has an open kitchen with the living room opposite on the hallway.
Scheveninger here. We congratulate a lot of people if they are in a way connected. Parents, Brothers and sisters and significant others. Because knowing how we all work. The reason they are still alive is probably due to family and the people close to them, So congratulations on keeping them alive for another year!
I also said 'gefeliciteerd' at a funeral :). It was of my last great grandmothers. I was quickly corrected by my dad to say the correct 'gecondoleerd'. Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who made that mistake as a kid (otherwise: hi mum!).
Heya! I'm an expat here in NL over a decade... here's something a bit similar to the "gefeliciteerd" thing: If you for some reason have to get some food while you are out and around and you eat it while you are walking.. random people will say "eet smakelijk!" to you. First time it happened I thought "do I know this person!??!", but it's just a kind of reflex some people can't resist!
I think this lies in the line of being outdoors and enjoying the joy of other people. I looooove how total strangers greet eachother on the streets just because they feel happy. Happy to enjoy the same sun or just another happy day. And you know what? If you come to appreciate that it brings a smile to your face as well. It’s contagious!
The downstairs bedroom kinda just makes sense. We don't have that much land to build on, therefor we build up and separate out home in a living area downstairs and a sleeping area upstairs (generally) therefor the bathroom is upstairs and well, where else would you put a toilet downstairs
I think we congratulate everyone because we’re all there to celebrate whatever happy occasion we’re there for. But I fully understand that it must be strange if it’s not common where you’re from! 😅 It may also be a way to break the ice if you’re in a situation where you don’t know everyone (which happens a lot at birthdays or weddings where people might invite family, friends and co workers etc.). If you don’t know what to say, at least you can say ‘gefeliciteerd’ and will have spoken to some people 😅 Oh well. Not sure. 😄 I really enjoy your videos by the way! I’ve discovered your channel only recently and I find your videos really insightful and entertaining. Your Dutch pronunciation is really very good! I also love the way you explain words that have no English equivalent, I just watched your second video on words the Dutch do best and your explanation for ‘gezellig’ is the best I’ve heard so far (or have been able to think of myself). I hope that you’ll be able to visit/go back to the Netherlands soon, once this whole pandemic thing has passed. How is the situation in Australia with COVID? Might be easier to control due to larger distances between houses/cities? Take care and keep up the good work, I’m an enthusiastic new subscriber and I hope you will enjoy making these videos for a long time!
For the toilets, I think it is a simple result of building compact house with a rectangular shape (to be able to make rows of houses) This rectangle on the ground floor will have a large sub-rectangle for the living room (not multiple rooms as in the UK), and a large rectangle for the kitchen. The remaining rectangle is for the hall with front door, staircase up and toilet. Where hall and staircase are most practical next to the front door, the toilet will be there as well (often under the stairs)
Hello Casey, yes it's a strange thing, wishing everybody a happy birthday, I live in Amsterdam for a good 50 years but still find it strange. The work done in 4 days is because we are super efficient. What I found the most scurrilous thing was the cookies with the coffee, one cooky, bin closed. That upset me , because were I came from., the cookies stayed on the table all the time. Suggestion; the book dubbledutch gives you an inking of all the funny Dutch habits. But enjoy staying in the netherlands !
Layout of Dutch houses is historical. We have a lot of row houses because of density of population. Long ago the toilet was in the garden, because of smell, without sewer. When the modern WC was invented and sewer was made in the streets, the toilet moved to the front of the house, to keep the pipes short. Guests and visitors come in trough the front door and go to the living area. Usually you do not want them in the more private rooms of your house. Together with the fact that a toilet door cannot be in a kitchen nor other living space, the best place would be the hall. Almost every Dutch house has a hall behind the front door to keep the cold out. In the same hall there is a closet where electricity, gas, water, telephone, television cable, and internet enter the house, up to there the provider manages it, from there the house owner. Sealed meters are in this closet to register your usage.
About the toilets: There is simple reason for it; The sewers are usually in the street in front of the houses. In appartments all the utilities will enter the house/appartment most of the time near the front door of the appartment. This is also true for the sewer-drain. So putting the toilet there makes the biggest sewage-inlet close to the frontdoor. In a country where every cubed meter has to be planned (Yes, even underground) this is just space-saving planning. Older houses - usually the ones older then 125 years old - actually didn't have toilets build into them. Their water related utilities had to be build into the house later. You will find their bathrooms & toilets in every nook & cranny that was considered good & safe enough.
Probably to late for Casey to read this comment, but I hope it might enlighten other none Dutch people on why some things work the way they do in the Netherlands. - Toilets: a lot of our houses were build in the time that outhouses were still a thing especially in older cities like Amsterdam, when adding a toilet to those houses it was just less of a hassle to put it next to the front door close to the street then somewhere else and we got used to that and kept doing it. an added benefit is that if a strangers rings the doorbell and asks can I please use the toilet you don't have to direct them through your entire house. - Kids and traffic: just like many have said not just bikes explains this in multiple video's in great detail. but simply said we got sick of people and kids dying in traffic and after a lot of protests we started to do everything we can to make our roads as safe as possible and kept on doing that. also almost every dutch person used a bike in traffic as a kid so when you start driving a car you know what you felt unsafe about on a bike and keep that in mind when you see people on a bike. - birthdays: I believe it depends on where you grew up in the Netherlands and also the setting. I grew up in a more northern part and at every birthday of a family member going past everyone there. but I do remember that being less with birthdays of friends and when I moved to the south it was way more uncommon. personally I can understand also going to the parents and siblings but other family members and friends has always felt a bit weird to me as well. in general the YT channel not just bikes goes into a lot of these differences and I as a Dutch person can definitely recommend watching some video's there if you want a more in depth explanation about why things are the way they are here and how that came to be.
Toilets seem to have received the most responses. And I agree mostly with them all, but it is tied to the history of the toilets, in combination with the history of architecture. Plumbing is mentioned. Outhouses also have been used in the past, and most often these are in the back and in modern times connected to (extension) the kitchen/bathroom, ground level. Another thing is the number of toilets W.C. (Water Closet) in the house, one toilet versus more than one, most often two toilets in a home, second in the bathroom. Luxuries. Most often Dutch homes only have one bathroom/shower-room and one W.C. (and a minimum of one toilet). The law is/was that if someone asks you to use the toilet you are obliged, to allow this. This to prevent them to do it in the wild, a alley etc. And you would not want them prancing through your house, also in this setting they have a window, to air-out the room/space. But then is also is what people became accustomed to. "Can I use the toilet?", and one basically knows where it is. Without them having to go on a discovery hunt or into more private setting in a house. The bedrooms near the front door is in some cultures custom but not the Dutch, because of safety reasons. If you are sleeping you want some time between a break in, and a confrontation. That is also why it is custom to have the feet-end of the bed facing the door. etc. If I think in stereo types I think Australia=Outback=camping=sleeping area is connected to the outdoors. Most often the children's bedrooms are located in a safer location in the house than the bedrooms of the parents. i.e. burglars first pass the bedroom of the parents. If not this is telling about the mindset of that household/culture. etc. In the history of bedrooms it was common for all people to sleep in one space often with the animals as well, way back in the past. And toilets were outside, not connected but part of the property or communal. Luxury and changing times... and we have the tradition/typical things we have now. Safety and the bakfiets, it takes two to tango, and if everybody is responsible acting things should be safe... in comes the electric bakfiets incident, from a few years back. Also it is a village/community that raises children, and thus children make less mess in a house if they play outside, and this is healthier, etc. but also times are changing in this. "Droppings" with school-camp are also a thing we do, and some cultures do not get/understand... typically in the Netherlands we do not helicopter parent. We load them up in a van, and drop them out... find your way back. Its a tradition :D But this also has to do with a sense of safety, and how safe we view the world/surroundings to be. We do not let our children play in the middle of the streets, and we have sidewalks, bike-lanes, playgrounds, etc. But also here things where different for my father growing up, even more nature and less people, versus me growing up, and the next generations that grew up.
The toilets are at the front doors because the main sewage pipes are installed underneath the roads right in front your house. So the shortest way to connect your toilet to the.sewage is to have your toilet installed near your front door. It's just practical
Toilet near the front door: It's got multiple reasons. Plumbing for the house's ground floor traverses less distance to the sewage and water mains, which reduces construction cost and the difficulty of repairs. It's also nice when you come home and need to go to the toilet you don't have to run through your entire house. The most common house design in the Netherlands is a ground floor hallway with access to a staircase, a toilet, a storage closet, the kitchen and the living room, with on the 1st floor 2-3 (bed)rooms and the main bathroom. And finally a "half-story" V-roof with the boiler and a singular room, usually used for storage. Because free space is so rare in the Netherlands, you almost never see 1-story houses. And the thought of having my bedroom right next to the front door makes me uncomfortable. Gefeliciteerd: It's a bit difficult to explain, but the gist is you say it to everyone for weddings and birthdays (and births) because it's a happy day for everyone. Everyone gathers to celebrate the happy occasion and when something good happens to someone you know it's also good for you right? I wouldn't exactly translate it to congratulating everyone, but at the lack of a better equivalent you can think of it as "congratulations for being part of the happy occasion". In case of a wedding or a birth it's a bit different because you do actually congratulate the families on the new addition to their families (Congratulations on your daughter's wedding, congratulations on becoming a grandmother). I've always liked that we do this, but this is the first time I've thought a bit more deeply about it. Road safety: Road safety is really good in the Netherlands. It all boils down to infrastructure and laws. Our roads are designed with pedestrian and cyclist travel as a priority. And car drivers (and even cyclists) are encouraged to drive safely (we call it defensive driving) by the laws that stipulate who is at fault in traffic accidents. That's not to say nobody breaks the rules and accidents never happen. But all effort is made to minimize it and ensure that all travelers are as safe as possible.
When my parents bought their house after they’d gotten married, it was new build and the toilet would be placed near the front door. My dad didn’t want that, so he got it placed near the garage/back door. The contractors weren’t to happy about it (it had to do with plumbing).
Toilets next to the front door are also there due to the plumming. Sewage is usually in the middle of our streets and having the toilet in the front of the house means it has the shortest route from the toilet to the sewage system.
The trick with birthdays is to arrive first so you don't have to "do the round" but they have to come to you instead.
Ik zeg altijd: " gefeliciteerd iedereen. " en ga dan zitten
Exactly this!
I hate doing the rounds, especially if you don't know most people. I like to mingle with different groups but it always feels kind of awkward.
Het ligt aan de mensen; als het er gezellig uitziet, ga ik iedereen langs. Als t stijfjes is, doe ik een doelloze zwaai en roep: gefeliciteerd allemaal! En duik dan in een donker hoekje met m’n taart. Leave me and My cake alone.
@@merthemarijberkhout3814 Dat doe ik ook altijd! Ik feliciteer de jarige, maak een vaag wuif-gebaar naar de anderen, en zeg :"proficiat iedereen"
@@merthemarijberkhout3814 wat is trouwens het idee achter andere mensen dan de jarige feliciteren? Ik heb dat nooit begrepen.
I’m Dutch, and when I first moved to the UK I congratulated a whole room of people at birthdays. Equally awkward 😁
🤣🤣🤣 glad this goes both ways then
Haha kan ik me voorstellen XD
I am from Limburg province and we do NOT congratulate everyone in the room. It is strictly a Holland/Dutch thing. I moved to the north and was equally flabbergasted when I was expected to make a round of the room to “feliciteer” everybody.
Haha geweldig. 😆
@@johnkochen7264 klopt helemaal ik ben ook uit Limburg en kende het fenomeen ook niet. Wel feliciteerde wij in onze familie de ouders met hun zoon of dochter, maar niet de hele feestbende. Volgens mij doen ze dit 'iedereen feliciteren ' in Brabant en Gelderland ook niet.
Another typical (but not exclusively Dutch) toilet ornament -- the birthday calendar.
@Mark In a student house i once saw a little screen with mtv on connected. haha (that when it still was Music TV )..
I put it in the kitchen. Seemed a better spot.
@@TheFreddy11023 what's more apropriat then sitting on the toilet and thinking, oh sh💩.... birthday is comming
oh it's a thing I thought it was only my weird flat mate :D
I have a "Beschrijf je bezoek aan de pot" (describe your toilet visit) notebook hanging from my door. I call it Het Dagboek van Anne Stank.
I appreciate my separate toilet. I like to keep my visitors out of my bathroom. Another positive aspect: the toilet is available when the bathroom is occupied.
I think most houses these days have two bathrooms but not necessarily near the front of the home like in the Netherlands. In the US the bathrooms tend to be further back in the house usually near the bedrooms. I figure perhaps the Dutch do this so that guest don't go into other areas of the house. It's like a privacy thing.
@@andrewdennis0 I think it is smart. You get home from work after biking and yes I am grateful the toilet is right there and gives you a place to wash hands when come in. Old homes they are by the back door mud room hall. Weather, snow and rain.
@@andrewdennis0 No, our bathroom is upstairs. We only have a toilet downstairs.
@@Saskia-uz4ds bathroom in the US can refer to just the toilet as well. Typicallyv we refer to it as a half bathroom when there is only a sink and toilet
@@andrewdennis0 Ah, cheers! :-)
Thanks so much for the mention and the link! I think that the independence that children have here is my absolute favourite thing in the Netherlands ... and that's saying a lot, because there's a lot I like about the Netherlands. :)
We've just had our first and I'm definitely happy about bringing her up in The Netherlands, the independence of children there is so fantastic to see :)
Wait why do Australians have their bedrooms close to the front door? And why is this so weird to me? Lol
A bedroom next to the front door feels weird to me. What if you have an intruder in the house...they first come in where you sleep. Having the toilet away from the living/cooking area seems smart. The toilet tends to be located underneath the stairs. Its just ideal for that small space.
I live in a house that was converted from a store about 50 years ago so my toilet isn't near a door but everywhere else I have lived there has always been a toilet near the front or back door and the only time I've ever seen a bedroom near the front door is when there's a bungalow and the front door leads straight into the hallway
Same same
I was thinking the same. :) I guess different countries = different habits .
I think the fact that there is 'too much' room in Australia has to do with it. When I was in Mildura, Victoria in 2003, I learned that it was prohibited there to built additional floors on your house. So knowing that, it does make sense that the whole setup of the house is different...
Due to the weather you don,t come straight in the living but in the hal, there you have the stairs, the utillitymeters, a place to hang your coat and the toilet. I think it makes sense.
Indeed, the hall is warm/cold air sluice. The toilet fits under the stairs, with some privacy from the living room. The lower part of the stairs is usually a closet and above is the bath room further keeping the plumbing short, it's also not in the way of daylight entering the parts of the house where it's more appreciated. So it's all about saving, saving heat, saving daylight, saving space, saving plumbing and saving embarassement.
I agree
I also feel like the Dutch idea of what a toilet/bathroom is differs from the concept Australians/Americans may have. From my experiences abroad it seemed rather normal to have a toilet near your bedroom, and not having it might be considered inconvenient. In NL most people have their bedrooms upstairs, and it's almost considered a luxury to have an upstairs bathroom, too
It's also a hygiene thing, dutch building codes require the toilet not to be directly connected to other living spaces such as the living room. So therefore the toilet is in the hallway.
@@hendrikusscherphof7348 we always had two. In our first house it was in the actual bathroom, in our current home (which my parents had built from scratch) we have a seperate toilet. I would indeed feel inconvinienced if I had to go to the toilet downstairs everytime I had to go, but just wanted to sleep. I'd say if I were properly awake, it wouldn't bother me that much tho
I'm 20 years old and native dutch and I absolutely hate the congratulate everyone custom. I never know what to do or say and I rarely participate in congratulating everyone myself.
My mom always taught me (because of my autism and social anxiety) that just waving hi and loudly saying "gefeliciteerd met [persoon] iedereen!" was also perfectly polite
@@alexej8175 I do that too, it's just easy as well.
@@alexej8175 Well you got to love the covid rules that made it for me easier or atleast normalized it more to just wave and say goodday or happy whatever.
It's not that common here in the south of the Netherlands. And I'm happy for that.
I agree! I don’t understand why I have to congratulate other people. I only congratulate the birthday person and their parents
Our traffic system is one of the safest on Earth. Dutch parents know what they are doing. Their safety is in alertness and being just good in riding bicycles.
We’ve spent a lot of attention to slow down traffic in suburban areas. And children know the dangers, because they are confronted with traffic dangers from a young age on, just because Dutch parents put them on a small bike and start to expose them to traffic.
In this subject you also see the hyper practical mentality of us Dutch back. The kids are just put in traffic like it is normal, but parents tell them everything along the way. Just do it, nothing is risk free, but without experience with danger, the danger becomes worse.
I totally agree! “Een gewaarschuwd mens telt voor twee”. It is betrer to know the danger and how to beat it, then to suddenly being confronted with it and suffer from it.
you also have to take into account that even though it all looks chaotic, cities are organized in such a way that traffic is actually heavily controlled - for instance, brick and narrow roads in residential neighbourhoods, elevated sidewalks (including a bump to slow down the cars as they turn into the smaller streets), clearly marked bike lanes, etc.
There's a lot of emphasis put on awareness, bikes and pedestrians in road law and driving lessons as well. On top of that, like op says, Dutch people learn to navigate traffic (to an extent) from a very young age and adults are aware that kids might just pop out of a side road on their bikes.
That's not to say accidents don't happen obviously but so far as I know the Netherlands are not any more dangerous than anywhere else if not safer.
If you want to know about the idea of the Dutch safety ideas in traffic search for "sustainable safety".
Our hyper practical mentality is my favourite Dutch cultural trait. My second favourite being our national pastime of complaining (which sort of follows our practicality. Things can't get better if you don't first talk about them) and our appreciation for directness.
I don't agree 100%. In general it's true but I have had to shout to warn a dad on a bike with his daughter on his shoulders who started crossing the wibautstraat as the light went green, didn't look to the side and didn't notice a taxi running a red light almost hitting them. I like our general approach to traffic but there can be some nonchalance and excessive trust in drivers and bikers following the rules rather than driving/biking defensively
Toilets, there is a regulation in the Netherlands that force there are at least two doors between a toilet and the living area (kitchen, living room, bedroom). Due to this regulation it is makes sense to put the toilet in the hallway, which is mostly at the front door. So it is a combination of regulations and a simple appliance of this. When the toilet would be placed at the living room, it means there must be a small hallway between the toilet and the living room, losing more space.
Bouwbesluit this no longer is valid for this, but it is still followed
Interesting! For completeness sake: small appartments do not all follow this regulation
@@womenfrom0202 well not by law maybe, but I am glad that if someone did poopoo I don’t have to smell that over my coffee in the livingroom 😳
@@womenfrom0202 Not if you build your own house.
There is the additional benefit of the short plumbing distance to the street. Same reason you also see the power groups near the entrance.
That boy misheard “gecondoleerd” (I’m sorry for your loss) and took it for the “gefeliciteerd” (congratulations), because it seems the same thing and sounds the same so they just don’t notice the difference. I have heard many children (including my own) say gefeliciteerd at a funeral or in private and the parents looking like “let’s have a short conversation “
Prople will immediately notice you didn’t know and won’t hate you for it. A funeral is a very intense moment and people will make ”nervous” mistakes...no offence taken.
I’m from the Netherlands but where I’m from we only congratulate the family members, I wouldn’t know why I would congratulate a friend 😂
mostly, "gefeliciteerd pik!"
That is how I remember it as well yea.
I use this system:
Birthdays: Congratulate the birthdayboy/girl on their birthday, the family on their son/daughter/brother/sister/etc birthday, and everyone else for being a part of the occasion.
Weddings: Congratulate the bride/groom on their wedding, the families on the addition to their family and everyone else for being a part of the occasion.
It's a boy/girl party: Congratulate the parents on having a child, the family on becoming a grandmother/father, uncle/aunt etc, and everyone else for being a part of the occasion.
That way I can conform to social convention without my brain going "this is illogical".
That’s right: only congratulate the family, close relatives and their partners (when they are not married). At a funeral you say “gecondoleerd” to these people. And… having the toilet by the front door makes sense: coming from outside/coming home it is often the first thing you do, probably after hanging your jacket on a hook next to the toilet😀. Also, in Australia having the bedrooms in the front makes sense as people are more focussed on their backyards. In Holland this would not work: firstly, as you said we normally have them upstairs because of plot limitations, and secondly, we wouldn’t be able keep an eye on the children playing in the street (and on the neighbours😀)! P.S. we lived in Melbourne for three and a half yrs.and had a very good time there.
I believe we have a rule that a toilet door cannot directly exit into the living room (due to hygiene). That means the toilet has to exit in the hallway basicly, and that is also where the front door normally is :).
I think its usefull like how many times you come home and really need to use the toilet
I think its because we need to let a person use the toilet when they ask for it at the door, we can't refuse according to the law so then they don't come completly in your house
Het toilet naast de voordeur betekend ook dat er vaak een raampje zit in de muur naast de voordeur. Dat is een makkelijke manier om het toilet te ventileren. ( te luchten)
i think we cycle without helmets and children don't wear helmets on bikes bc we learn to cycle when we are very very young. I mean 2 years old with side weels for support and almost everyone can cycle at 6 yo.
it's also because of the type of bikes we have. We sit up pretty straight on them, which results in very different injuries as opposed to mountain/city bikes in which you lean forward more. Countries that aren't bike friendly almost exclusively have fast bikes on which you lean forward, so if an accident happens your head is in much more danger.
That and the fact that most of the cycling we do is on a bicycle path seperate from roads with cars, so accidents are again less serious than in non-cycling countries.
And the infrastructure as well: it's just not as dangerous to cycle here
People also generally feel more risk avert when not wearing a helmet while cycling.
AND it's just hideous wearing a helmet on bike. going to the pub / disco wearing a helmet 8-)
And you would be seen as a tourist
A common lay-out for a Dutch house is that the more private areas such as the bedrooms and the main bathroom are on the first floor and the living areas (living room, kitchen) where you would usually receive guests are on the ground floor. To prevent guests from having to go to the first floor to use the toilet, it is common to have a separate toilet in the hallway near the front door that they can use.
I'm dutch and congratualating everyone to me kinda feels like showing your happy for the other people to have that person (who' s bday it is) in their lives.
And about the young children, being independent is a important thing in dutch culture. :)
As a child, we were allowed to come to the playground in the area by ourselves from the age of 6. From the age of 8, 9 or 10, children cycle to school by themselves (depending on how far away they live of course).
As to road safety and cycling, everyone is very aware of what to do and what not to do when cycling, so it might appear unsafe for the untrained eye, but it's not as bad as it looks once you're in on the rules etc I think. :)
It's so much fun to hear your perspective because as a Dutch native I don't always think about the things that are strange to foreign people. Thank you for sharing
Honestly, one good thing about Covid is that I no longer have to go round the 'kring' and say happy birthday to other people. God I hate it, it's so awkward. Hopefully when Corona is over and we can go to birthday parties again it will not come back.
I hate it too, that is why i stopped doing this a long time ago. Now i only shake the hand/kiss the birthday boy/girl. To all the other people i just say hello.
Haha ik voel dit echt
Oh I think it's horrible too, but everyone looks to you like, why did you just sit down? If you don't congratulate everyone. I usually just shake a few people's hands and try to sit down quietly so no one sees me... Although I don't think it works (I'm usually really awkward at birthdays because of those things)
@@annelipluister1929 Honestly ever since I've turned thirty I just don't care anymore. I wave at people, I say hello and say happy birthday. If there is someone new I might go and say hello but otherwise I just don't care. When it comes to close family and friends I always do the 3 kisses (not now of course) but extended family, like my sister-in-laws family, and acquaintances I just say hello and wave.
Growing up I also didn't like doing this, now I just don't lol. I just shout gefeliciteerd into the room after congratulating the person whose birthday it is and nobody cares.
Over the years I have seen many The-Dutch-Do-Weird-Thing-Video's but yours is the first one that is spot on. Gefeliciteerd with that !
By the way, as a Dutch guy, I can still remember playing in the street as a kid. We would yell "Auto !" every now and then when a car approached us.
We stood aside and after it had passed we were back playing in the streets... Ah, die goede ouwe tijd...
Cheeeeeeers,
Jecepede
I think in very old houses, the toilet is added to the house at the back, often connected to the kitchen. As for the toilets next to the front door, the Dutch regulations are that a toilet can never be adjacent directly to a living room, so there always have to be 2 doors between a toilet and a living room. Since often the hallway is already separated from the living room with a door, putting the toilet next to the frontdoor is convenient.
Actually it's 2 doors away from the kitchen, read health regulations, and probably, close to front door, because of length of piping needed. Closer to the street, read underground sewage would be cheaper to build.
@ Casey: I believe the combination of these 3 answers, is the best explanation to your question of the toilet location. From a personal point, I also dislike congratulating everybody with the whole kissing etc. Usually I just shout out and congratulate all at once and be done with it , who knows in 20/30 years time this tradition has changed with the new generation.
A toilet in the hallway is also convenient because the hallway is connected to all other rooms in the house. So from any room you can get to the loo without having to cross another room disturbing the people who happen to be / work / sleep / play there.
I always thought the toilets are at the front because that makes it easier to connect them to the sewer (which runs underneath the street) ...
Not only easier but cheaper and less resource demanding. And there are ventilation benefits, although I am sure that wasn't a design choice for that reason.
@@forkless Not sure if the people visiting agree with the ventilation benefits.. :P
and a lot of the time it also fits under the stairs or fits in the room with the stairs. ventilation. most people in the Netherlands don't want to sleep on the street side so you need to put something in the front.
'Gefeliciteerd' and a 'felicitatie' is a 'gelukswens' a wish for good luck. At a birthday party you share the good luck wishes with each other and the one whose birthday it is.
Exactly!! And you share and celebrate the joy of another year in contact with this wonderfull birthday-person 😃
We congratulate each other on successfully keeping the birthday-boy or girl alive for another year.
Indeed. At a birthday party, everybody congratulates everybody else. And no, in new houses the toilet is next to the front door too. That arrangement saves space in other rooms. Most of the time, there’s another toilet on the second floor in the bathroom.
Yes, I was wondering whether "gefeliciteerd" is not an exact translation of what we think when we say "congratulations" - rather it might be as if you said "happiness!"?
@@myotherchannel2729 you might be right! It always fascinates me when we are trying to translate from one language into another if it concerns a “feeling”-word. It is mostly very cultural. “Gezellig” and “leuk” are very hard to literally translate as well.
Or try to explain the difference between “leuk” and “mooi” in dutch.
0:54 The toilet near the front door is the result of a small country with a high demand for landspace. Land is very expensive and when building more narrow terrace houses makes them a lot cheaper to build. And with that there is basically just two possible locations for the toilet on the ground floor. Near the entry is generally the best use of the space on the ground floor. That and combined with the fact that the sewer connection exits the house underneeth the front door towards the street, and thus there is less change of blockages with the toilet connections to the sewer as close to the main sewer as possible.
I like it that you found the Not just bikes channel. It’s great.
We grow up riding bikes, it comes as natural as walking
Here the trafic rules are in favor of its weakest participant and most bikelanes are seperated from other trafic
It's organised chaos, so be mindfull of your surroundings
Yes, she definitely needs to see the channel Not Just Bikes ua-cam.com/channels/0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A.html
The Netherlands have a tremendous road safety by design. It is much safer to travel on our roads than in almost all other countries. People wearing helmets would improve safety ever so slightly, but nothing beats good road design.
The toilet is in the hallway is because of the "Woningwet" (housinglaw) from 1901.
It states a toilet is only allowed inside a house (back then toilets were outside) if the door doesn't lead you into a living area.
As the hallway is not considered a living area it is a suitable place to put the toilet.
Regarding the toilet: I know in the US (and maybe in Australia as well) it's common that when you step through the front door, you step right into the living room. In the Netherlands you won't see that anywhere. We are used to having a tiny room called a "hal" behind the front door, where you can hang your jacket and put your shoes away (if you want to). And then there's a door from the hal to the living room. You will find this situation in almost every house. And we think it makes sense to have the door to the toilet in the hal as well. So usually the "hal" has 3 doors: one from outside, one to the living room, and one to the toilet. And usually the stairs that lead to the first floor/bedrooms is there as well. Of course there is also a bathroom in the house (with a bath and/or shower), but that's usually upstairs, and you don't send people upstairs if they just need to go to the toilet. Again, YMMV, but this is the most common layout.
Regarding gefeliciteerd: yeah I agree it's a bit strange to congratulate everyone else. It doesn't always happen at every party... some people do it, some people don't. It's a bit 50/50. To stay on the safe side, you can say gefeliciteerd to his/her family (parents, spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend, and their kids) and just say hi to everyone else at the party.
Bike helmets are for tourists that don't know how traffic works here. And for speed cyclists. ;-)
- Toilets next to the front door is exactly the opposite of an old house thing. In old houses it tends to be in the back of the house. Often in an extension because the original house didn't have a toilet inside. It's only since houses were build or renovated with toilets in mind that they were put next to the front door. But it only makes sense; if a delivery guy or such needs to use the toilet it's right there, you don't have to let them go through your entire house. The hall and toilet are more public areas, everything else is more private. It doesn't make sense to have a bedroom - the most private room in the house apart from the bathroom - right next to the public street/entrance. Apart from everything else I'd feel very uncomfortable having people walking right along my bedroom window all the time, let alone street noise. I want that room to be as far away from the street as possible. (and of course, you don't care if a toilet receives street noise). Usually the living room or kitchen are next to your front door, as these are less private. It's normal to invite, say, your accountant into your living room, but they have no business with your bedroom. Friends might cook in your kitchen, but normally have no reason to go to your bedroom. This is all a natural evolution from the time that people lived in great halls. Once they started making separations the extra rooms were the most private while the hall remained public. In fact old houses used to have 2 living rooms: a front fancy living room that was only used to receive important people, and the back private living room where you actually lived yourself all year round and receive friends and family. As society became less hierarchical (the doctor and pastor are now just people, not special people to revere) the separation disappeared and of course the doorzon (through sun) design came into use having your living room run from the front to the back of the house with both front and back windows letting light in. The entrance hall is what used to be the only main hall in a house, everything else is organised according to privacy mostly. If you find this topic interesting I'd suggest reading Bill Bryson's book At Home.
- actually, you normally congratulate family. Not friends, unless they're so close friends they're considered family maybe. And really a lot of people will just get in the room, congratulate 1st degree family and call out congratulations in general to the rest as everyone basically hates going around the entire room or if you're already there getting constantly interrupted by people going around the room. And with weddings the custom is that the married couple and 1st degree relatives are at the entrance of the partyhall and receive guests and get congratulated there. At least with every wedding I've ever been to. Though maybe it's different regionally.
- it makes no sense to wear helmets on a bike. It doesn't add to safety really as it's extremely unlikely you'll actually hit your head if you ever fall, it actually hinders your ability to observe other traffic, and a study done by a Dutch professor showed that cars will pass closer by when you're wearing a helmet (probably because subconsciously you look to be safer) and thus actually _increasing_ the likelihood you'll get in an accident. Apart from that, our entire infrastructure is designed for bike safety (e.g. physical separation of foot traffic, bikes, cars) and our bikes have a safer design (sitting upright), which is way more effective and something sorely missing in other countries, which is why they have to make due with things like a helmet because it's so much more likely you'll get in an accident.
Basic dutch houses:
Behind the front door you'll find the hallway. This connect to the living room, kitchen toilet, 'meterkast' (utilities closet), stairs and the trapkast (stair cupboard) or cellar.
Having as much distance between the kitchen and the toilet is probably why the toilet is placed next to the front door.
- "Hi my name is Casey"
- Gefeliciteerd!
gecondoleerd
The toilet next to the front door comes from the grown custom to using the hallway as a utility area. The hallway started as a barrier between the cold outdoor and warm indoor so the cold doesn't flow into the living space, and provided the ideal area to put the stairs to the upper floor. When private plumbing was introduced houses needed to be retrofitted but adding another room was weird and costs precious space so the already existing space underneath staircases was easy to convert into a toilet. This grew into the custom of having the toilet in the hallway in a separate cubicle.
another place in older houses where it was put is in the back, near the kitchen. Especially older workers housing (1900-1950 or so) had a sort of pantry or boot room there and as the front hallway was often too small in these houses, that area was used for the toilet. It made sense as it was mostly already used as a washing up room when people came back from their dirty jobs. Many of these houses still have full bathrooms there.
You’re not alone: I introduced myself when someone said ‘gefeliciteerd’ to me at a birthday party 🤣
Not a problem, but we congratulate everyone at the party.
I find it weird that those other people didn't introduce themselves. If I go to a party I will say 'gefeliciteerd' to everyone but still, if there is someone I don't know, I will start by introducing myself.
I still do that and I am Dutch. Just grew up in the far south where you do introduce yourself at a party
@@stephenvanwijk9669 I'm Dutch, I always find that weird. I only congratulate the person(s) in question, but I'm also very subborn. 😉
Nothing wrong with that. It's normal to know with who you are dealing with. Nothing more awkward as people who sit next to you without saying anything.
I wanted to recommend Not Just Bikes, but you mentioned him already :p
When I lived in Canada I was really surprised how little freedom (young) children get there. I was so used to always be outside, or go to the pool without parents, even from a really young age. To me parents seem over protective when they don't let their children go out on their own (so I guess this goes both ways haha)
Plus not wearing helmets while biking in holland is logical, because we have clycling tracks everywhere. So riding a bike is not as dangerous as everywhere else.
That’s nowadays. Back in the 90’s and 2000’s we were free to roam the streets. We always played outside cause we didn’t really have many video games and the video games we had weren’t that good. It was a different time back then. Nowadays kids stay inside and play fortnight.
The way i understand it ( not 100% sure though) if some one asks to use the toilet. They don't have to get into the actual house if the toilet is just behind the front door.
That's indeed one reason. Also you don't need to lay the biggest sewer pipes through the whole house and at most houses it's the place under the stairs
Houses in the Netherlands have a compact layout, and are costs effectively built. Toilet at the front door means that your water inlet and your sewer outlet can be the shortest, because it is planned at the street side of the house.
Many stuff in The Netherlands makes sense if you look to it through the most handy and costs effective glass.
Explanation for the toilet! The type of home that was most commmonly builtin the twentieth century was the 'doorzonwoning' or - roughly translated - 'sunthroughhouse'. The main feature with this type of home is that the livingroom spans the entire length of the ground floor, with windows in the front and back, so the sun can 'shine through'. Earlier in the century, kitchens were a functional space and closed off from the living space. The kitchen was usally in the back, with a door to the garden for practical acces to the garden (for veggies). Since the ground floor was only about 6 meters wide and 7 to 9 meters long, the only space left for a toilet was in the hallway, with the stairs for the floor above (in older homes, before the seventies, under the staircase there's usually a mini cellar for storing food).
Mid eighties the layout changed somewhat. With working women, fewer kids and better appliances, needs changed. The garden was nonlonger a practical space, but an extension to a living space. Kitchens moved to the front, next to the hallway, in an open set up to entertain guests. The living space became mkre square often with large windows facing the garden. The toilet just stayed where it had been, because dutch people are used to it.
Having the toilet next to the front door is kinda handy, when you’ve just hurried home in the nick of time. Master bedrooms don’t do the trick quite as well 🙂 It might be a relic from when you’d put out the nightsoil bucket in the street for a cleaner to pick it up. Or even earlier, when you’d just empty it into the canal. An urban thing
I've never even thought about the toilet by the front door. But when someone you don't know that well asks is they can use your toilet, the don't have to come through the whole house to get there... And there is usually a hallway (never got the house plans where you directly enter the living room without the hallway. You want to keep the cold/heat in/out...) so it is just a good use of space.
It used to be in old building-rules that at least 2 doors had to be in between a toilet and a living-area (e.g. Living room/kitchen). This was believed to be partially because of sound-regulation regarding installations. The central ventilation had to be at least 2 doors away from a living area (or in wider sense, 'staying'-area (verblijfsruimte)). The text basically was "a toilet can't open into a living area" and "Toilet needs to be within 3 meters height of an entrance and 25 meter distance from an entrance"(so ground or 1st floor) and "The toilet is reachable from a closed off, communal or non-communal traffic route". The backdoor could also count, but usually dutch smaller houses dont have a laundry-room, e.g. not 2 doors between kitchen and toilet. The law was dropped around the year 2003 somewhere. For Bars and Restaurants however, this was in the rules until 2017, and then finally dropped. (TMI, TL;DR is, it was organised by law that the toilet needed to be close to the front-door)
This video is so accurate. I would add the bdays calendar in the guest restroom 🤣 definitely weird
Even in Belgium it's a custom to put your toilet in your hallway next to the door. It's easy, I think everyone should do this 😂
There are a good number of such toilets by the front door in Britain too, and often not in old houses either.
Indeed ! And the benefit is that visitors does not have to walk trough the whole house
I like the fact very much, that it is very important to congratulate the parents of the one who's birthday it is, especially the mother as she had to go through a lot of trouble during the first 9 months of that person's life and especially the giving birth process on that day that is remembered.
I love the shock about the toilet. There are several reasons, but the most plausible is that before sewage the loo was in front of the house because barrels in which the sewage was collected were once a week emptied and was easy reachable. No need transporting them through the entire house. Nowadays the main sewer pipe usually enters the house at the frontdoor. Next to the entrance of the crawling space with the water meter. Also the other utilities enter the house at the front to get accessable in the meter closet.
The British word for toilet is 'loo' and what you call a ton is a 'barrel'.
@@richardbrinkerhoff Thank you!
Toilets at the front are cheaper to build, less plumbing required. The only legal demand is that the has to be an extra door between the toilet door and the living room. On birthdays, you not only visit the one whose birthday it is, you visit everybody in the house. Everybody is hopefully glad that that person has his/her birthday so, it is only natural to congratulate everybody in the room. It also breaks the ice and if you are new to the family, it gives you the chance to introduce yourself. Like: Gefeliciteerd, ik ben een vriend/vriendin van de jarige. Then the other will introduce him/herself also and you instantly know who is who and you are also instantly taken into the group. I think not congratulating everybody is a bit clinical (but hey, it is my culture).
plus you can run straight to the toilet after a long drive
@@sophiedenijs8481 LOL
No, you congratulate the person and say hi to the rest. That should be enough...
I've had people call me (for anything) but before the actual talk congratulate me with their partners birthday.. never understood that...
@@FreakyNotje The Dutch generally think it is not enough. Cultural difference.
Hier in Limburg feliciteert men alleen de jarige.
So the thing with toilets: Decades ago, before we had public sewers, there was a profession called 'putjesschepper'. The putjesschepper was someone who came to your house once in a while to empty your toiletwaste that was all stored beneath the toilet seat. Since you don't want that person to walk through your entire house with buckets full of shit, the toilets were mostly located next to the frontdoor. Even though we are all connected to a sewer for years (or in some remote areas a septictank) the toilet next to the frontdoor just stayed with us.
I really like the congratulating everyone at a party. It breaks the ice and when you’re at a party where you don’t know anyone you at least spoke to everyone. I use it to decide who to sit next to and who to avoid at the party.
Also when the party is gotten big enough that not everyone looks at you when you enter I just don’t do the round.
The congratulations on birthdays even happen on Face Book, the first time I learned about that I laughed so hard, I thought they were joking.
I live in the neighbouring country Belgium where we speak Flemish (pretty similar to Dutch) but we NEVER do that. Only the birthday-person gets congratulations.
Toilets are by the front door because that's were our hallway is. If you enter by the front door you come in to the hall way with all entry's to the living room, dining room, kitchen, brakercloset and also the toilet. We often only have one bathroom with a toilet, bath, shower and sink upstairs next to the bedrooms for everyone to use upstairs.
The reason why the toilets in simple terraced houses are next to the front door is that they can easily be ventilated with fresh air that way. There is a small window next to the front door in many cases. In traditional houses from the sixties and before the ground floor was too limited to situate the toilet elsewhere to an outer wall.
You’re not alone: Last year while at a birthday party I introduced myself when someone said ‘gefeliciteerd’ to me 🤣
Why is that a problem, Dutch people who meet someone for the first time ar somenones birthday party are used to introduce themselves as well. Avoids little secret conversationd like ”who’s that? And what’s he/she doing here?”
In the Netherlands we usually have multi store houses: We always ran the risk of flooding so to prevent people waking up while drowning most bedrooms are on the first (or higher) story.
This means that we need a stairwell; stairwels in the livingroom would waste a lot of heat (winters were cold here). So most stairs are put in the walled off area attached to the front door we call "de hal" ("corridor" might be the closest I can translate it to, but seems somewhat off).
To make the best use of "de hal" and to prevent other rooms from having the nasty odor AND allowing for a window in the toilet to air it out; the best place to put it would be next to the front door. It usualy comes with some kind of cellar/cabinet under the stairs as wel :)
as a Canadian in Holland the first thing you notice after getting off the plane ... Is the Low clouds// flat roof feeling ... That nice blue dome effect is missing ... // second : crossing the street // two skips and your already there... people will complain "having to go alllll the way to city center by foot?!".. like a 6 min wal;k ??...
The toilets near the front door: Old school build... cus it then can have a window for ventilation ... from times where there was no electricity nut mainly cause of the "waterwall"" / wetwall... all the water plumbing runs behind the same wall.. so the upstairs washroom is directly above downstairs toilet// One thing that freaks dutch people out abroad is the fact that like in canada the frontdoor opens into the living room??? .. .. also left over from old days i guess.. wet cold country .. so the hall way is like a wetroom for clothing and gear to not dragg it into the house..
PS the gefeliciteerd at a bday party ..is actually only for family members like parents / partner ...not really supposed to be for everyone at the party to say... you would say it to the parents but not friends... your HI I AM... worked just fine as a universal answer cus you were "new"to the group setting and needed to introduce yourself also ..
I’d say toilets are placed near the entry so that guests (especially the ones you don’t know) can use them without having to go through the entire house. The bathroom (mostly upstairs) usually has one too, and will be used by family members (whose bedrooms are also upstairs). Furthermore, as some Dutch houses (especially the old ones) tend to be multiple stories high (though narrow) with steep staircases, it’s convenient to have one downstairs too.
Hi I can answer your question with the toilet by the frontdoor. As an architect you are aware of space and space wasting. So we clumb together all the small rooms so that there is more space for the bigger rooms. The entrance, staircase, toilet and the room with the meters are usely clumbed together.
The toilet is by the front door especially in houses in a row. It makes it possible to have a small window in the front wall, which mostly stays open to let in fresh air. But also there are houses which have the toilet all the way in the back, with a window in the back wall, for the same reason.
Pasunsoprano *That window is covered with bricks now so you can't see the man peeing!*
@@afriend9428 Nonsense. Those windows are small and up so high that nobody can look in. Not covered up with anything because they are still standard even in new Dutch houses.
The toilet in the hallway is also considered the guest toilet, I find it convenient both as a guest and as a host.
Me and many many people have one toilet in the house.. :-)
The house were I lived as a child was build at the end of the 1980's and has a toilet in the hallway which was where you came in. First was the electric/water appliance closet or whatnot, meterkast we call it. And then the toilet. We also had one upstairs in the bathroom. it was truly the coldest room in the whole house, all the time, even when it was 40 degrees outside.
The appartment I am living in now, build 1950's, is also having a toilet next to the entry.
I am Dutch and have lived in Switzerland for 35 years. I am married to a Swiss person, and the look on my mother in law's face deserves an Emmy award when I first congratulated her with her daughters birthday. I kept doing it over the years and the Swiss around me got used to it. They probably still think it is just weird old Dutch Ronald.
Can you do a video about the culture difference between you and your partner? After being together with my wife for ~30 years, we still have 'issues' with those! I thought they would go away - they don't!
BTW - love your videos, The 'algorithm' about language got me to your channel, I learnt Swiss German early on, and like in your case, it opened the world to me (ie. the Swiss one for me). In one of my videos I subtitled the Swiss German and I got a comment: sounds like weird Dutch!
In Europe there was a rule that stated there needed to be two doors between the living room/kitchen and the toilet. The hallway is in most houses the first room behind the front door so the kitchen and the toilet are two doors away.
So funny to hear about the “congratulate everyone” thing☺️ Im Dutch and live in the province of Limburg and we dont do that here at all😂 I remember being very confused when i went to a birthday party up north when everyone started to congratulate me with my friend
I never say gefeliciteerd to anyone but the person celebrating their birthday, at most to their parents, but that is it. To me it is such a strange habit to say that to everyone (and I am Dutch). Besides that I feel it takes away a bit of the special moment it is for the one celebrating their birthday. But yeah, I guess I am the weird one, because I am the only one doing this at the parties I go to.
Me too
Nee hoor Paul, ik heb ook nooit iemand anders gefeliciteerd, alleen de jarige. De rest feliciteren vind ik absurd!
Me neither. I live in the south of the Netherlands and never knew this is common in Holland. To me it feels a bit strange. Why congratulate every person present on a birthday party? Very strange.
There are general building rules (it used to be Bouwbesluit, I don't know what it's called now) which say what the minimum rules for building houses etc.are. One of the hygiene & liveability rules is that there need to be two doors (i.e. a sort of airlock) between a toilet and a room where people spend time, like a living room or bedroom or kitchen. This avoids smell and noise etc. from the toilet polluting the living room and bedrooms and kitchen.
That's why a toilet (downstairs, where visiting company can also use it), and a bathroom (often with a second toilet, upstairs near the bedrooms) are always located off a hallway.
As downstairs there is usually a hallway located between the front door and the living room or kitchen (to keep the warm inside in winter and not let the cold in), that is where the toilet will be located as well.
Fitting it under the stairs is just an efficient use of space, where possible.
Houses built before the Bouwbesluit might not have this hallway, but then the really old houses tended to get the toilet added on later, at the back or side, when outhouses disappeared - that often created some distance too.
Spot on observations, haha. Okay, here are my explanations as a Dutch person. Toilets are next to the front door so that guests can use your toilet without having to cross through the rest of the house. I think. Congratulating everyone at a birthday party seems to me to be a fairly recent development. When I was younger, say ten years ago, I don't recall this to happen so much. I remember my first parties where everybody congratulated me. It felt very strange. It has become very common nowadays. I always thought it was some kind of American influence or so. The trick to avoid the birthday awkwardness is to say loudly when you enter: "Hi, everyone congratulations!", smile, look around the room and wave, and you're done :). That reminds me of one of my own cultural mistakes when I lived in Australia. At most shops the person behind the counter would say hello and ask me how I was doing. For the first few weeks, I would give an honest answer and explain why I was doing well/not so well. Then I figured out that they were not actually interested in how I experienced my time in Australia, but were just being polite. And the only answer I needed to give was: good, thank you, and yourself?
Toilet: you we're right. Plumbing! Just to keep the pipelines as short as possible. Less yards to get clogged up 🤓
And the Window to remove smell.
It's been thought all over and over
*The plumber can just go to fix the toilet as he enters!*
In that case wouldn't the bathroom always be right next to the kitchen?
The hall is the sluice to keep not just warmth / cold outside but also functions as an area where to leave outdoor things like shoes and coats. It is more hygienic that way because you don't walk all the mud and rain with you into the living room. Making the toilet in the hall area is a space convenient solution because there is usually space left under the stairs and it is part of the hygiene. You don't want to the toilet to open up into the living room or kitchen for hygiene reasons. The hallway is a sluice to keep dirt as well as coldness/heat out of the living area. There is often a sort of scullery between the kitchen and backyard as well for the same reason.
The WC near the front door is for visiting guests.
In my experience, congratulating everyone at a party sometimes does also include briefly introducing everyone to eachother, or at least how they are related.
that is true, but it's a weird custom nevertheless haha
The separate toilet thingy is also common in Belgium. I never thought that it was weird because it is extremely useful.
The toilet subject: the front door usually leads to a hallway as an extra compartment to keep wind and cold out. This is the best place for a toilet in order not to have the toilet in the livingroom. The hallway is in most cases small 2 or 3 square meters, so the toilet automatically ends up next to the front door.
It has another benefit: the main sewers are in the middle of the street and this way the piping from the toilet to the sewer is the shortest. It is economic,
But in larger (deeper) houses you often see the toilet further up the hall, often under the stairs.
Many US houses also have a half-bath (toilet+sink) next to the front door, but your right, this is usually in multi-storey houses.
About your curiousity of the toilets placed at the frontdoor.
The thing I could imagine why, is that back in the days when there was no proper sewers, then people had to do their businesses in a bucket. And that bucket will then again pick-up by a professional once or twice a week. So it was out of convenience that the toilet was placed at the frontdoor. If that was not the cause, then imagine yourself in a situation when this professional would come one or twice into your home, have to grab the bucker from somewhere in your house, walking back with the risk of falling and excidently spilling things on the floor, and leaving a pleasant smell throughout the house. But nowadays, we got sewers, there is no need to place at the frontdoor but I guess it just grown into the daily life.
I'm not convinced. Maybe that's because I know that in Friesland, the toilet was (usually) several meters from the house. Also, as someone else said, with plumbing it actually is convenient to have them close to the outside.
@@607 Well... You talk about Friesland that always stands out from the rest of the Netherlands. But cities in the olden days could not have toilets outside as Friesland could. So a system was created that a "professional" would take care of your business each week until he got replaced by a sewerpipes... So you could say that the "professional" was the sewerpipe but in human form. So I am not convience that it has to do of cost-effective reasons.
This profession has even a name (I just looked it up): strontschepper or stronttonnetjesschepper.
This profession stoped existing somewhere after WW2. But still, even if the sewer was installed in each house, you might still have a problem with ventilation. So opening a window was a basic thing to do, if someone had a bigger business than he or she though. But the smell needed some time to escape. So placing a toilet near a kitchen or dining erea, was a bit... disgusting... as it is like farting while having diner. And placing it near the leaving room... I can imagine you are trying to relax in the leavingroom, but you hear someone on the toilet stressing on his or her business... It is unconfortable for both parties. So it the next place would be near the staircase at the frontdoor. Usually, the hallway is a separete erea from the livingroom, kichtchen and dining erea. It can also create a feeling of privacy and you could take your time doing your business. Unless, someone suddenly rings the bell and you are the only one present that should open the door but being in the middle of your "zen" moment.
@@megalondonkleuter Haha, I love your final remark. Yes, that is annoying. :)
I think it's also the convenience that if you need to go on the way home, you can just open the front door and bolt it straight into the toilet.
@@Litl_Skitl Hm, I doubt it. Moreover, that only works if you enter through the front door. :P Many people have houses where they enter by the back door or garage by default, especially because the bicycle is a very common means of transportation.
About the toilets at the front door, espescially in case of appartment buildings. You've got your staircase, that leads to your front door, there's usually a hallway before the 'rooms' start. In that hallway you'll see the toilet, it's conveniënt to build and the room doesn't require a window. Daylight is a scarce rescourse in the winter.
I’m new to your channel and I think it’s helpful for me to understand the Dutch. Thanks!!
Always fun listening to people discuss the hectic roads mixed with bike, cars, and trams. As a transportation engineer Amsterdam and Netherlands in general is one of, if not the safest city in the world when it comes to transportation. You mentioned the lack of people wearing helmets. Studies have shown helmets save lives, not for bicyclist but for motorist. If you want to be safe, wear a helmet driving and bike without in Amsterdam.
When I was younger we used to have a shoelace through the front door with which you could open the door by pulling on it. Super easy to get in. But nowadays you don't see them any longer because of the unsafety these days.
Those were the days. I got my key to the house at twelve. Before that, when we went to play outside, you would put 'het touwtje door de brievenbus' if you forgot, you had to wait for your mother to come home.
Toilets near the front door, and even the first floor bathrooms often on the front side of the house, are simply because the sewer is under the street, and so is the watermain. So it's just efficient. Now if you check some older homes, mine is from 1921, so not even that old, the home were built without plumbing. They used to have an outhouse in the backyard. Later on they would add a structure to the back of the house, building into the yard, and that's where the bathroom and toilet will be situated.
@1:30 both usually its below the central bathroom in the centre of the house for plumbing reasons but its also the general/guest bathroom as opposed to the main bathroom which tends to have a toilet as well, so you would have your entry hall with to the side either a fore-house or the foreside of the main living, or in some cases the kitchen, then the hallway usually takes you to the option to go into that living(with kitchen) a room at the back or take the stairs up, the toilet usually is near the stairwell
by building code the toilet must be reachable without crossing the living room from anywhere in the house (except the front door... ) or if so, there must be an extra toilet to comply to this. As bedrooms are upstairs, as is a bathroom, the separate toilet gets to be in the hallway. Most houses have the front door coming out in the hallway at ground floor for convenience for most ppl spend their evening in the living room the toilet is therefore by default on the ground floor. As a hallway is often seen as wasted space, those are often build with the smallest size in mind, and therefore close by the front door making the gap useful that is there for the width of the stairs. Basicallyy its floor space optimization reasons.
This leads to a very "standard" row of things that are on the outer wall of the house: Hallway, stairs to upper floor, cabinet under the stairs, toilet under the stair landing or before the stairs at the door, ending up into the kitchen on the backside or the door into the livingroom where the kitchen is on the front and has an open kitchen with the living room opposite on the hallway.
Scheveninger here. We congratulate a lot of people if they are in a way connected. Parents, Brothers and sisters and significant others. Because knowing how we all work. The reason they are still alive is probably due to family and the people close to them, So congratulations on keeping them alive for another year!
I also said 'gefeliciteerd' at a funeral :). It was of my last great grandmothers. I was quickly corrected by my dad to say the correct 'gecondoleerd'. Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who made that mistake as a kid (otherwise: hi mum!).
Heya! I'm an expat here in NL over a decade... here's something a bit similar to the "gefeliciteerd" thing: If you for some reason have to get some food while you are out and around and you eat it while you are walking.. random people will say "eet smakelijk!" to you. First time it happened I thought "do I know this person!??!", but it's just a kind of reflex some people can't resist!
I think this lies in the line of being outdoors and enjoying the joy of other people. I looooove how total strangers greet eachother on the streets just because they feel happy. Happy to enjoy the same sun or just another happy day. And you know what? If you come to appreciate that it brings a smile to your face as well. It’s contagious!
The downstairs bedroom kinda just makes sense. We don't have that much land to build on, therefor we build up and separate out home in a living area downstairs and a sleeping area upstairs (generally) therefor the bathroom is upstairs and well, where else would you put a toilet downstairs
I think we congratulate everyone because we’re all there to celebrate whatever happy occasion we’re there for. But I fully understand that it must be strange if it’s not common where you’re from! 😅
It may also be a way to break the ice if you’re in a situation where you don’t know everyone (which happens a lot at birthdays or weddings where people might invite family, friends and co workers etc.). If you don’t know what to say, at least you can say ‘gefeliciteerd’ and will have spoken to some people 😅
Oh well. Not sure. 😄
I really enjoy your videos by the way! I’ve discovered your channel only recently and I find your videos really insightful and entertaining. Your Dutch pronunciation is really very good!
I also love the way you explain words that have no English equivalent, I just watched your second video on words the Dutch do best and your explanation for ‘gezellig’ is the best I’ve heard so far (or have been able to think of myself).
I hope that you’ll be able to visit/go back to the Netherlands soon, once this whole pandemic thing has passed. How is the situation in Australia with COVID? Might be easier to control due to larger distances between houses/cities?
Take care and keep up the good work, I’m an enthusiastic new subscriber and I hope you will enjoy making these videos for a long time!
For the toilets, I think it is a simple result of building compact house with a rectangular shape (to be able to make rows of houses) This rectangle on the ground floor will have a large sub-rectangle for the living room (not multiple rooms as in the UK), and a large rectangle for the kitchen. The remaining rectangle is for the hall with front door, staircase up and toilet. Where hall and staircase are most practical next to the front door, the toilet will be there as well (often under the stairs)
Hello Casey, yes it's a strange thing, wishing everybody a happy birthday, I live in Amsterdam for a good 50 years but still find it strange. The work done in 4 days is because we are super efficient. What I found the most scurrilous thing was the cookies with the coffee, one cooky, bin closed. That upset me , because were I came from., the cookies stayed on the table all the time. Suggestion; the book dubbledutch gives you an inking of all the funny Dutch habits. But enjoy staying in the netherlands !
Layout of Dutch houses is historical.
We have a lot of row houses because of density of population.
Long ago the toilet was in the garden, because of smell, without sewer.
When the modern WC was invented and sewer was made in the streets, the toilet moved to the front of the house, to keep the pipes short.
Guests and visitors come in trough the front door and go to the living area. Usually you do not want them in the more private rooms of your house. Together with the fact that a toilet door cannot be in a kitchen nor other living space, the best place would be the hall.
Almost every Dutch house has a hall behind the front door to keep the cold out.
In the same hall there is a closet where electricity, gas, water, telephone, television cable, and internet enter the house, up to there the provider manages it, from there the house owner. Sealed meters are in this closet to register your usage.
Btw there are a lot of laws that regulate the design of a house, no matter if it's rented or owned, social housing or a big villa.
The toilet next to the front door is known as a guest toilet.
Haha interesting! I'm Dutch and most things I don't even thought about before!
About the toilets: There is simple reason for it; The sewers are usually in the street in front of the houses. In appartments all the utilities will enter the house/appartment most of the time near the front door of the appartment. This is also true for the sewer-drain. So putting the toilet there makes the biggest sewage-inlet close to the frontdoor. In a country where every cubed meter has to be planned (Yes, even underground) this is just space-saving planning.
Older houses - usually the ones older then 125 years old - actually didn't have toilets build into them. Their water related utilities had to be build into the house later. You will find their bathrooms & toilets in every nook & cranny that was considered good & safe enough.
BEDROOMS BY THE FRONT DOOR?! Thats so weird to me
No, toilets 🚽
Just like the front door opening straight into the living room, no hallway or whatever. So weird
@@suzanneoortwijn3928 Lol, mijn ouderlijk huis heeft dit, dus ik vond het als kind juist vreemd om een hal te zien.
@@rose-mariedekoning8471 lijkt me zo koud. Alle weersinvloeden en vieze voorstellen gelijk in je kamer 🙈
@@suzanneoortwijn3928 Bij zulk weer gingen we langs de achterdeur naar binnen. Dan kon je in de bijkeuken/mudroom je natte schoenen en jas uitdoen.
Probably to late for Casey to read this comment, but I hope it might enlighten other none Dutch people on why some things work the way they do in the Netherlands.
- Toilets: a lot of our houses were build in the time that outhouses were still a thing especially in older cities like Amsterdam, when adding a toilet to those houses it was just less of a hassle to put it next to the front door close to the street then somewhere else and we got used to that and kept doing it. an added benefit is that if a strangers rings the doorbell and asks can I please use the toilet you don't have to direct them through your entire house.
- Kids and traffic: just like many have said not just bikes explains this in multiple video's in great detail. but simply said we got sick of people and kids dying in traffic and after a lot of protests we started to do everything we can to make our roads as safe as possible and kept on doing that. also almost every dutch person used a bike in traffic as a kid so when you start driving a car you know what you felt unsafe about on a bike and keep that in mind when you see people on a bike.
- birthdays: I believe it depends on where you grew up in the Netherlands and also the setting. I grew up in a more northern part and at every birthday of a family member going past everyone there. but I do remember that being less with birthdays of friends and when I moved to the south it was way more uncommon. personally I can understand also going to the parents and siblings but other family members and friends has always felt a bit weird to me as well.
in general the YT channel not just bikes goes into a lot of these differences and I as a Dutch person can definitely recommend watching some video's there if you want a more in depth explanation about why things are the way they are here and how that came to be.
Toilets seem to have received the most responses. And I agree mostly with them all, but it is tied to the history of the toilets, in combination with the history of architecture. Plumbing is mentioned. Outhouses also have been used in the past, and most often these are in the back and in modern times connected to (extension) the kitchen/bathroom, ground level. Another thing is the number of toilets W.C. (Water Closet) in the house, one toilet versus more than one, most often two toilets in a home, second in the bathroom. Luxuries. Most often Dutch homes only have one bathroom/shower-room and one W.C. (and a minimum of one toilet).
The law is/was that if someone asks you to use the toilet you are obliged, to allow this. This to prevent them to do it in the wild, a alley etc. And you would not want them prancing through your house, also in this setting they have a window, to air-out the room/space.
But then is also is what people became accustomed to.
"Can I use the toilet?", and one basically knows where it is. Without them having to go on a discovery hunt or into more private setting in a house.
The bedrooms near the front door is in some cultures custom but not the Dutch, because of safety reasons.
If you are sleeping you want some time between a break in, and a confrontation.
That is also why it is custom to have the feet-end of the bed facing the door. etc.
If I think in stereo types I think Australia=Outback=camping=sleeping area is connected to the outdoors.
Most often the children's bedrooms are located in a safer location in the house than the bedrooms of the parents. i.e. burglars first pass the bedroom of the parents. If not this is telling about the mindset of that household/culture. etc.
In the history of bedrooms it was common for all people to sleep in one space often with the animals as well, way back in the past.
And toilets were outside, not connected but part of the property or communal.
Luxury and changing times... and we have the tradition/typical things we have now.
Safety and the bakfiets, it takes two to tango, and if everybody is responsible acting things should be safe... in comes the electric bakfiets incident, from a few years back. Also it is a village/community that raises children, and thus children make less mess in a house if they play outside, and this is healthier, etc. but also times are changing in this. "Droppings" with school-camp are also a thing we do, and some cultures do not get/understand... typically in the Netherlands we do not helicopter parent. We load them up in a van, and drop them out... find your way back. Its a tradition :D
But this also has to do with a sense of safety, and how safe we view the world/surroundings to be. We do not let our children play in the middle of the streets, and we have sidewalks, bike-lanes, playgrounds, etc. But also here things where different for my father growing up, even more nature and less people, versus me growing up, and the next generations that grew up.
The toilets are at the front doors because the main sewage pipes are installed underneath the roads right in front your house. So the shortest way to connect your toilet to the.sewage is to have your toilet installed near your front door. It's just practical
Toilet near the front door: It's got multiple reasons. Plumbing for the house's ground floor traverses less distance to the sewage and water mains, which reduces construction cost and the difficulty of repairs. It's also nice when you come home and need to go to the toilet you don't have to run through your entire house.
The most common house design in the Netherlands is a ground floor hallway with access to a staircase, a toilet, a storage closet, the kitchen and the living room, with on the 1st floor 2-3 (bed)rooms and the main bathroom. And finally a "half-story" V-roof with the boiler and a singular room, usually used for storage. Because free space is so rare in the Netherlands, you almost never see 1-story houses. And the thought of having my bedroom right next to the front door makes me uncomfortable.
Gefeliciteerd: It's a bit difficult to explain, but the gist is you say it to everyone for weddings and birthdays (and births) because it's a happy day for everyone. Everyone gathers to celebrate the happy occasion and when something good happens to someone you know it's also good for you right? I wouldn't exactly translate it to congratulating everyone, but at the lack of a better equivalent you can think of it as "congratulations for being part of the happy occasion". In case of a wedding or a birth it's a bit different because you do actually congratulate the families on the new addition to their families (Congratulations on your daughter's wedding, congratulations on becoming a grandmother). I've always liked that we do this, but this is the first time I've thought a bit more deeply about it.
Road safety: Road safety is really good in the Netherlands. It all boils down to infrastructure and laws. Our roads are designed with pedestrian and cyclist travel as a priority. And car drivers (and even cyclists) are encouraged to drive safely (we call it defensive driving) by the laws that stipulate who is at fault in traffic accidents. That's not to say nobody breaks the rules and accidents never happen. But all effort is made to minimize it and ensure that all travelers are as safe as possible.
In small apartments in huge buildings in Korea, the bathroom is always directly to the right or left by the entrance door.
When my parents bought their house after they’d gotten married, it was new build and the toilet would be placed near the front door. My dad didn’t want that, so he got it placed near the garage/back door. The contractors weren’t to happy about it (it had to do with plumbing).
Toilets next to the front door are also there due to the plumming. Sewage is usually in the middle of our streets and having the toilet in the front of the house means it has the shortest route from the toilet to the sewage system.
In the Netherlands, the house front door opens inwards and the back door opens outwards as standard. 👋🏻