Our Story

Catqwea started in September 2025, in a small house in Anna Paulowna, with one person and a kitchen drawer that would not close.

​

Most people have that drawer. A garlic press that never really worked, three peelers, some gadget bought at a market that seemed brilliant for about a week. Calvin Metselaar, who started Catqwea and still runs it, spent years buying things like that and throwing most of them away. What stayed in the drawer was always the same small handful of items. Simple, solid, good at one job.

​

That is the whole idea behind the shop. Instead of stocking everything, we look for the things that survive the drawer. Kitchen tools and household items that earn their place because you reach for them without thinking about it.

​

Catqwea is registered in the Netherlands as a sole proprietorship under KvK number 98123602 and has been trading since 1 September 2025. The registered activity is online retail in a general assortment of consumer goods, which in practice means the kitchen and the rest of the home. Everything is run from Kemphaanlaan 76 in Anna Paulowna, 1761XH.

​

We keep it small on purpose. One person chooses what goes on the site, one person answers your email, and one person hears about it when an order turns up late or something arrives broken. No call centre, no script, no ticket number. If you write to us, you are writing to the person who runs the shop, and you will usually hear back the same day.

​

Being small also changes how we buy. We are not filling shelves to hit a target somewhere. Every product here had to pass a fairly simple test first: would we still be using it once the novelty wore off? Plenty of things do not pass, and that is fine. We would rather sell you one item you keep for ten years than five you replace next spring.

​

We are still early on. The range grows slowly and a good part of it comes from what customers ask for, so if you have been looking for something and cannot find it anywhere sensible, tell us. A few products are on the site for exactly that reason.

​

Thanks for stopping by, and for buying from a small Dutch business rather than a warehouse that will never know your name.