Bedstee

2020, video [01:50]

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In the polder, how do we sleep? The attic is taken up by hay, the cellar is undeep because of the clay. We sleep in closets. These closets are called bedstee, the place of the bed. They are build-in wall closets with wooden doors. Inside you find a bed and a shelf (occasionally housing the baby’s crib), not much more than that. People in Holland used to sleep in a bedstee from the 16th century on. They were still popular on the countryside in the 20th century. A lot of farms still have the closets in place. My mom converted them to a wardrobe. I used to hide behind the long dresses on the floor, where nobody could find me.