people who insist on spending the money for a matched pair have more dollars than sense!  My Asko is perfectly at home beside my GE gas dryer.

any given person's definition of "matching" or "matched set"?

Are matched sets REALLY desirable, or perhaps an insidious quest for monotony and institutionalized servitude.

Perhaps an "unmatched" set is more humane, and suggests a person is of a friendlier, more realistic mindset.

OR could it be a sign that they're MAD, and akin to a member aligned with ISIS (or whatever the latest corporate media created hate group is).

Then we have to consider where the line is drawn on "matched" vs. "unmatched".

For example: a white pair of Whirlpool washer and dryer,  made just a few years a part with similar, but slightly different control panels.

Are they a matching pair?   Who can really say?  So MANY questions.

One thing is for sure. Life's GREAT DEBATE's will continue to weigh us down until someone creates a clear decision, and we all agree to adhere to the rules.  

Have you ever been at a laundry room set up, in a house or apartment building, and the washer and dryer are "matched" but they were not setting next to each other OR the appliances were installed sloppily and were not set up in the same plane?

Do you notice your brain starting to hurt a little bit?  Maybe you start to shake your head in disgust.  "how could this be allowed to happen" you think.  Do you start looking behind the appliances to figure out what happened?  Maybe there's a pipe in the way and the dryer couldn't go back further.

Have you ever been in an apartment building, like a four family, where people could have their own washer dryer, but they all had to be set up in the basement, around a single laundry tub.  So the washers are around the laundry tub, where the plumbing connections are, then the dryer are all against the basement walls, closest to the vents.  

One, including myself, looks at this and just sees so much wrong.

Is this a matched set?

It's from a 1981 Sears ad. Clearly the washer and dryer look very close, but it's not too difficult to see they are not really a matching set............

or, ARE they?

I remember those washers in the catalog...and the water saver water drop logo.

My mom never had a matched pair til I got her the LSG7804 Maytag stacked unit.  I've never had a matched pair myself.  Both of my grandmothers had unmatched pairs too.

My kitchen consists of all black :

(WP)Maytag fridge

Frigidaire gas range

Kitchenaid KDI23 dishwasher

Insinkerator disposal

(WP)Kitchenaid compactor

Black & Decker toaster oven

Sharp convection/microwave

 and white laundry:       

Asko washer

GE gas dryer

I will never forget the day, in November of 1961, I walked into the bathroom of my parents' first house and saw the matched Filter-Flo set, brand new, waiting to be used for the first time. I was 5 and thought that, for some reason, they had bought 2 washing machines.

One doesn't need matching anything, but those aesthetics had meaning to some people that had nothing to do with practicality or ergonomics. For my Mother, a Depression kid, things that matched meant that she was no longer poor. I don't share her need for it, but I still feel her sense of having made it, not ever having "made it" myself.