If you go to the Netherlands and you walk through any residential area, you cannot really escape them: The super-obvious NEE-NEE-sticker or the NEE-JA-sticker on people’s brievenbussen (mailboxes). What are these for? Let’s dive in.

Folders, folders, folders…

As we have discussed before, many places in the Netherlands distribute a load of folders (ad brochures) from supermarkets and local stores every single day. They can be useful to find the latest deals. There are also huis aan huisbladen (house-to-house brochures), which tell you what is going on in your neighborhood and report on some recent (local) news.

But maybe you find the deals online, or you simply don’t care. And maybe you find your news online or talk to your neighbors and don’t want to get all this unnecessary paperwork. In that case, these stickers are for you.

Stickers as protection

A NEE-NEE-sticker on a brievenbus (Image by author)

The Dutch overheid (government) provides these stickers, and you can get them at your gemeente (municipality). There are two soorten (kinds):

NEE-NEE-sticker – with this sticker, you will neither receive any ongeadresseerd reclamedrukwerk (unaddressed advertisement printed material) nor huis aan huisbladen.

NEE-JA-sticker – with this sticker, you will not receive any ongeadresseerd reclamedrukwerk, but you will receive huis aan huisbladen.

So you just go to your gemeente or you get them online – at the aptly named neeneeneeja.nl. Of course you can get them from anywhere, since they do not have to have a very exact look, and they are so widespread that everyone knows what they mean.

Zeg ja!