Whirlpool Duet Front-Loader Washer and Dryer with steam

Is it legal to marry an appliance?

This washer/dryer set had more features than I knew what to do with when it arrived, but over the last month, I’ve come to appreciate the variety of options it offers. It doesn’t just wash and dry clothes. It steam-cleans my son’s stinky soccer uniform, soaks my husband’s white shirts, de-allergenates (?) my baby’s sheets and delicately hand-washes my “Hand wash only” wool sweater.

So without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to my new favorite duo.

Meet The Washer.

Big. I have three young boys which means we go through a lot of grass-stained, food-spilled, dirt-caked clothes in a week. This washer has a 4.3 cu. ft. drum which means I can wash a week’s worth of all three of my boys’ clothes IN ONE LOAD. Unfortunately, I still have to fold them all.

Serious choice of cycles. Normal, Bulky, Allergen, Heavy Duty, Whites, Jeans, Quick, Delicate, Hand wash, Rinse/Drain/Spin – whatever you’re washing, there’s a cycle to meet your washing needs. This week I used Normal (my clothes), Bulky (our down comforter), Whites (husband’s dress shirts), Hand wash (wool sweaters) and Allergen (boys’ clothes after stomach flu was going around school).

Personalize your wash. Beyond the cycles, you can adjust the water temperature (5 choices), spin speed (5 choices) and degree of dirtiness (3 levels). Plus you can add on a presoak, OXI dispense, extra rinse, deep clean with steam or EcoBoost. My favorites are the presoak option (an option I thought was lost with a front-loader), EcoBoost and Steam Clean.

No rush. Want to start a load of laundry before you hit the hay or head out for the day? No worries about your damp laundry sitting for hours with Whirlpool’s FanFresh button which periodically tumbles the load and circulates air through the washer which keeps the clothes fresh and ready for the dryer when you are ready.

Energy-efficient. The washer is ENERGY STAR® qualified, but beyond that it meets Tier III requirements from the Consortium for Energy Efficiency, the highest level of water and energy savings.

Meet The Dryer.

Fast! This was the first thing I noticed about the dryer. My last dryer took twice as long as my washer to finish a load. This Whirlpool dries an entire load in about 30 minutes – and that’s on the Medium Heat/Less Dry setting. Impressive!

Personalize your drying. Six cycles to choose from (Delicate, Casual, Normal, Bulky, Jeans, Heavy Duty, Towels) plus two timed settings – Enhanced Touch-up and Quick Refresh which use steam to relax wrinkles and refresh clothes.

My favorite feature. I iron my husband’s dress shirts every other week, but frankly I don’t enjoy it. However I’m also fairly thrifty which means I’d rather iron than pay for dry-cleaning. Fortunately, the Whirpool dryer has a two features to make my life easier – a Wrinkle Shield add-on which periodically tumbles and steams the clothes to prevent wrinkling for up to 120 minutes after the load finishes and the Enhanced Touch-Up cycle which quickly tumbles and steams clothes to de-wrinkle them thereby making my ironing job a bit easier.

LED Drum Light. I have to admit I thought this was a silly feature at first. Until I had to find my yoga pants in the back of the dryer for a 6 AM class at my fitness club. Or my son’s soccer socks right before we have to run out the door. Since the 4.3 cu. ft. drum is so large, it’s nice to have a light to see what the heck is back there.

If you’re in the market for a new washer or dryer, give Whirlpool a visit or check out Lowe’s Appliance Selector Tool to help you find the perfect appliance for your lifestyle, space and budget.

Mommies With Style was not paid for this review. Lowes provided a product sample for this review. The reviews expressed here are my own.

Kate Bayless is a writer, editor and will be ironing tonight. Her work has appeared in Parents, American Baby, Fit Pregnancy, iVillage and other publications. Visit her at www.katebayless.com or @katebayless.

This review is along the same lines.  Beyond diapers, Diapers.com has an entire Green Baby section where those of you trying to go more eco-friendly can shop conveniently for a wealth of awesome green products.  I myself went shopping for my kids and I don’t even have kids in diapers anymore!

Here’s a pict of some of the items I bought.  I’ve been wanting to try the Baby Silk Sunscreen Towelettes for ages, and I’ll be replenishing the hand sanitizer with some CleanWell and Babyganics Hand Sanitizers.

And I scored this great collection of organic snacks for my kids – clearly Cole loves everything I purchased. (His favorite are the Clif Bar Twisted Fruits)

The prices are competitive and it’s just so great to have free shipping and get it in two days on your doorstep.  Talk about convenience at its finest.

Giveaway: I have $100 Diapers.com credit to giveaway to one lucky Mommies with Style reader for you to spend on green and other baby products!  Contest ends May 9, 2011.  One winner will be selected at random and picked after that time.

Enter to win by commenting below.

For extra entries:

1) subscribe to our RSS feed – comment to let me know you did!
2) tweet about this giveaway, @WhitneyMWS so I know you did.  You can use:  I entered to win $100 at Diapers.com from @WhitneyMWS http://bit.ly/lSPnFq

Good luck!

They have a variety of Sustainable Earth products like:  All-Purpose Cleaner, Printer Toner, an Eco-friendly Notebook and even a Sustainable Earth Calculator for $5!

Staples.com offers free delivery on all orders over $50.

This year, my kids will each get a Growums Gardening Kit.  These kits for kids include several different kinds of seeds in each kit.  They come in themes – so for example, the Pizza Garden has seeds for Roma Tomatoes, Basil, Oregano and Bell Pepper.

You can follow along with the progress of your seets on the Growums.com site too.  The kids can login and watch videos and read information about their plants at various stages.  Growums cost $9.99 per kit.

Disclosure: I received samples of Growums to facilitate this review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

These blocks are cool and they are eco-friendly but they are also magnetic and completely addicting.  I received a sample of the Pocket Pouch Tegu Blocks in the mail and I have not been able to put these little blocks of wood down since.  I had planned on keeping these for my kids but seriously may covet them for myself.  It’s like the squishy ball you have on your desk in the office – just something I can’t help but hold.

Of course I will eventually share with my kids.  Really.  And I know they will love them.

Some other cool things about Tegu Blocks – they are made out of Honduran Wood and they are completely eco-friendly.  They’re a bit pricey to be sure, but this is a timeless toy that will last a lot longer than a passing plastic toy.

You can buy various sets of Tegu Blocks on Amazon.

Here’s one of many earth-friendly products I’ll be featuring this month:  the Earth Purse.  Each purse uses 100% recycled textiles that have previously been thrown out.

Each purse is unique so you know you’ll never run into anyone using the same purse either.  Get a small one for $28 and a large for $32.  Many of the bags are reversible too.

Piggy Paint is makes all-natural nail polish that’s great for kids – it’s non-toxic and odorless.  This seems like a no brainer to me – especially for young kids who tend to put their hands in their mouths often.

$7.99-$8.99 per bottle of nail polish.  Free shipping on orders over $35 on the PiggyPaint.com site.

Crystal Clear Glass Cleaner – at our house, the holiday means lots of entertaining which inevitably means lots of dirty glasses to wash. Over the years I’ve broken many a glass trying to shove my hand and sponge into them to scrub out the remnants of last nights wine tasting. But no more. With the Crystal Clear Glass Cleaner, my glass are clean – and in one piece. ($7.99)

Scoop Sponge – heard those statistics about the germs and bacteria that can be harbored in your kitchen sponge? One of the culprits is an always-wet sponge. Full Circle solves this problem with their all natural cellulose Scoop sponge. Notice the arch of the sponge? That helps the sponge to dry faster which means less of the gross stuff growing in your sponge. ($4.49 for 2)

Stick ‘Em Magnetic Kitchen Towel – My husband often justifies leaving the towel on the counter by complaining that it’s “too hard” to hang the towel over oven handle. Problem solved with the innovative Magnetic Kitchen Towel. A built-in magnet helps the towel hang on your fridge, stove or other metal surface. Goodbye wet towel on the counter. I’m stuffing this one in my husband’s stocking.($8.99)

Buy a bunch for an eco-kitchen gift pack or just a few to stuff into stockings. Visit www.fullcirclehome.com to see the entire collection and to purchase.

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Note: Samples of these products were provided by Full Circle Home.

One of my favorite things about the fall are Sunday afternoons with my family.  We turn on NFL Football and hang out at home organizing, playing family games, watching football and just spending some quality time together.

Yesterday was one of my favorite kinds of these days.  It was a bit rainy on and off, plus the Eagles were playing so we holed away for the day.  In between watching football, we tested out a new game from Young Learners called Eat Your Words.

As my 1st Grader Nate continues to learn to read, I find we’re often challenged with finding fun and engaging ways to get him to read.  Seeing as he loves to play games, finding a game where he has to form words to play makes it fun.

We had a blast playing this game as a family over the weekend and I forsee playing this game a lot in the future.  You can get Eat Your Words at the Creative Toy Shop website along with several other Young Learners educational games. Be sure to check out the Calafant toys as well – made from all-recycled cardboard, these are great kits for encouraging imaginative play.

I received a sample game of Eat Your Words for review purposes.

Because accidents happen, we also chose their Breathable Mattress Protector ($70), which is made from soft organic flannelette. They can be used in cribs or for toddlers during potty training. The mattress protector is made with two layers of soft organic flannelette and sandwiched in the middle is a thin polyurethane membrane, which is child friendly and breathable. It comes with elastic bands on each corner so it can be attached securely to the mattress. Mattress protectors can be machine washed at 140 degrees Fahrenheit to kill all bacteria (bacteria and dust mites are killed at 134.6 ^oF).

Click here to check out Natural Mat’s facebook page.