diff --git a/pandas/core/common.py b/pandas/core/common.py
index 28f3a19ab5298..5c2726e8e11a3 100644
--- a/pandas/core/common.py
+++ b/pandas/core/common.py
@@ -1729,6 +1729,42 @@ def in_qtconsole():
     except:
         return False
 
+class ReprMixin(object):
+    """
+    Classes enowed with this mixin need only implement __unicode__
+    and str,bytes, repr will return the right type of string in py2/py3
+
+    """
+    def __str__(self):
+        """
+        Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
+
+        Invoked by str(df) in both py2/py3.
+        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
+        """
+        if py3compat.PY3:
+            return self.__unicode__()
+        return self.__bytes__()
+
+    def __bytes__(self):
+        """
+        Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
+
+        Invoked by bytes(df) in py3 only.
+        Yields a bytestring in both py2/py3.
+        """
+        encoding = get_option("display.encoding")
+        return self.__unicode__().encode(encoding, 'replace')
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        """
+        Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
+
+        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
+        """
+        return str(self)
+
+
 # Unicode consolidation
 # ---------------------
 #
diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index 4dc01beed9c7e..59a8239121386 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -638,28 +638,8 @@ def _need_info_repr_(self):
                 else:
                     return False
 
-    def __str__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
-
-        Invoked by str(df) in both py2/py3.
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-
-        if py3compat.PY3:
-            return self.__unicode__()
-        return self.__bytes__()
-
-    def __bytes__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
-
-        Invoked by bytes(df) in py3 only.
-        Yields a bytestring in both py2/py3.
-        """
-        encoding = com.get_option("display.encoding")
-        return self.__unicode__().encode(encoding, 'replace')
-
+    # ReprMixin->PandasObject->NDFrame->DataFrame
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
     def __unicode__(self):
         """
         Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
@@ -688,14 +668,6 @@ def _need_wide_repr(self):
         return (get_option("display.expand_frame_repr")
                 and com.in_interactive_session())
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
-
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-        return str(self)
-
     def _repr_html_(self):
         """
         Return a html representation for a particular DataFrame.
diff --git a/pandas/core/generic.py b/pandas/core/generic.py
index 580148e11cc7c..c7e56a11fb106 100644
--- a/pandas/core/generic.py
+++ b/pandas/core/generic.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ class PandasError(Exception):
     pass
 
 
-class PandasObject(object):
+class PandasObject(com.ReprMixin, object):
 
     _AXIS_NUMBERS = {
         'index': 0,
@@ -539,7 +539,9 @@ def _constructor(self):
     def axes(self):
         return self._data.axes
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->PandasObject->NDFrame
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr and everything works on py3/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         return 'NDFrame'
 
     @property
diff --git a/pandas/core/index.py b/pandas/core/index.py
index 0c6e490f3eb50..19d3a94b7eab3 100644
--- a/pandas/core/index.py
+++ b/pandas/core/index.py
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ def _shouldbe_timestamp(obj):
             or tslib.is_timestamp_array(obj))
 
 
-class Index(np.ndarray):
+class Index(com.ReprMixin,np.ndarray):
     """
     Immutable ndarray implementing an ordered, sliceable set. The basic object
     storing axis labels for all pandas objects
@@ -144,28 +144,8 @@ def __array_finalize__(self, obj):
     def _shallow_copy(self):
         return self.view()
 
-    def __str__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Index
-
-        Invoked by str(df) in both py2/py3.
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-
-        if py3compat.PY3:
-            return self.__unicode__()
-        return self.__bytes__()
-
-    def __bytes__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Index
-
-        Invoked by bytes(df) in py3 only.
-        Yields a bytestring in both py2/py3.
-        """
-        encoding = com.get_option("display.encoding")
-        return self.__unicode__().encode(encoding, 'replace')
-
+    # ReprMixin->Series
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
     def __unicode__(self):
         """
         Return a string representation for a particular Index
@@ -180,14 +160,6 @@ def __unicode__(self):
         prepr = com.pprint_thing(data, escape_chars=('\t', '\r', '\n'))
         return '%s(%s, dtype=%s)' % (type(self).__name__, prepr, self.dtype)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Index
-
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-        return str(self)
-
     def astype(self, dtype):
         return Index(self.values.astype(dtype), name=self.name,
                      dtype=dtype)
@@ -1434,28 +1406,8 @@ def _array_values(self):
     def dtype(self):
         return np.dtype('O')
 
-    def __str__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Index
-
-        Invoked by str(df) in both py2/py3.
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-
-        if py3compat.PY3:
-            return self.__unicode__()
-        return self.__bytes__()
-
-    def __bytes__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Index
-
-        Invoked by bytes(df) in py3 only.
-        Yields a bytestring in both py2/py3.
-        """
-        encoding = com.get_option("display.encoding")
-        return self.__unicode__().encode(encoding, 'replace')
-
+    # ReprMixin->Index->MultiIndex
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
     def __unicode__(self):
         """
         Return a string representation for a particular Index
@@ -1478,14 +1430,6 @@ def __unicode__(self):
 
         return output % summary
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Index
-
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-        return str(self)
-
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.labels[0])
 
diff --git a/pandas/core/internals.py b/pandas/core/internals.py
index 7441134aab351..fc5f726db9ec8 100644
--- a/pandas/core/internals.py
+++ b/pandas/core/internals.py
@@ -797,7 +797,7 @@ def make_block(values, items, ref_items):
 # TODO: flexible with index=None and/or items=None
 
 
-class BlockManager(object):
+class BlockManager(com.ReprMixin,object):
     """
     Core internal data structure to implement DataFrame
 
@@ -894,7 +894,9 @@ def __setstate__(self, state):
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.items)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->BlockManager
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         output = 'BlockManager'
         for i, ax in enumerate(self.axes):
             if i == 0:
diff --git a/pandas/core/panel.py b/pandas/core/panel.py
index d1f87e4e7c932..e05c563aa00cf 100644
--- a/pandas/core/panel.py
+++ b/pandas/core/panel.py
@@ -456,28 +456,8 @@ def __invert__(self):
     #----------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Magic methods
 
-    def __str__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Panel
-
-        Invoked by str(df) in both py2/py3.
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-
-        if py3compat.PY3:
-            return self.__unicode__()
-        return self.__bytes__()
-
-    def __bytes__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Panel
-
-        Invoked by bytes(df) in py3 only.
-        Yields a bytestring in both py2/py3.
-        """
-        encoding = com.get_option("display.encoding")
-        return self.__unicode__().encode(encoding, 'replace')
-
+    # ReprMixin->PandasObject->Panel
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
     def __unicode__(self):
         """
         Return a string representation for a particular Panel
@@ -502,14 +482,6 @@ def axis_pretty(a):
             [class_name, dims] + [axis_pretty(a) for a in self._AXIS_ORDERS])
         return output
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Panel
-
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-        return str(self)
-
     def __iter__(self):
         return iter(getattr(self, self._info_axis))
 
diff --git a/pandas/core/series.py b/pandas/core/series.py
index acfc875fa45a1..a2e20f03c307f 100644
--- a/pandas/core/series.py
+++ b/pandas/core/series.py
@@ -1067,28 +1067,8 @@ def reset_index(self, level=None, drop=False, name=None, inplace=False):
 
             return df.reset_index(level=level, drop=drop)
 
-    def __str__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
-
-        Invoked by str(df) in both py2/py3.
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-
-        if py3compat.PY3:
-            return self.__unicode__()
-        return self.__bytes__()
-
-    def __bytes__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
-
-        Invoked by bytes(df) in py3 only.
-        Yields a bytestring in both py2/py3.
-        """
-        encoding = com.get_option("display.encoding")
-        return self.__unicode__().encode(encoding, 'replace')
-
+    # ReprMixin->PandasObject->Series->DataFrame
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
     def __unicode__(self):
         """
         Return a string representation for a particular DataFrame
@@ -1112,14 +1092,6 @@ def __unicode__(self):
         assert type(result) == unicode
         return result
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        """
-        Return a string representation for a particular Series
-
-        Yields Bytestring in Py2, Unicode String in py3.
-        """
-        return str(self)
-
     def _tidy_repr(self, max_vals=20):
         """
 
diff --git a/pandas/io/pytables.py b/pandas/io/pytables.py
index f9cc850cc6d27..c3f2f2fdd2171 100644
--- a/pandas/io/pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/io/pytables.py
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ def get_store(path, mode='a', complevel=None, complib=None,
             store.close()
 
 
-class HDFStore(object):
+class HDFStore(com.ReprMixin,object):
     """
     dict-like IO interface for storing pandas objects in PyTables
     format.
@@ -242,7 +242,9 @@ def __contains__(self, key):
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.groups())
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->HDFStore
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         output = '%s\nFile path: %s\n' % (type(self), self._path)
 
         if len(self.keys()):
@@ -885,9 +887,9 @@ def __iter__(self):
 
     def get_values(self):
         return self.func(self.start, self.stop)
-        
 
-class IndexCol(object):
+
+class IndexCol(com.ReprMixin,object):
     """ an index column description class
 
         Parameters
@@ -948,11 +950,11 @@ def set_table(self, table):
         self.table = table
         return self
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->HDFStore
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         return "name->%s,cname->%s,axis->%s,pos->%s,kind->%s" % (self.name, self.cname, self.axis, self.pos, self.kind)
 
-    __str__ = __repr__
-
     def __eq__(self, other):
         """ compare 2 col items """
         return all([getattr(self, a, None) == getattr(other, a, None) for a in ['name', 'cname', 'axis', 'pos']])
@@ -1128,7 +1130,9 @@ def __init__(self, values=None, kind=None, typ=None, cname=None, data=None, bloc
         self.dtype_attr = "%s_dtype" % self.name
         self.set_data(data)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->IndexCol->this
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         return "name->%s,cname->%s,dtype->%s,shape->%s" % (self.name, self.cname, self.dtype, self.shape)
 
     def __eq__(self, other):
@@ -1349,7 +1353,7 @@ class GenericDataIndexableCol(DataIndexableCol):
     def get_attr(self):
         pass
 
-class Storer(object):
+class Storer(com.ReprMixin,object):
     """ represent an object in my store
           facilitate read/write of various types of objects
           this is an abstract base class
@@ -1388,7 +1392,9 @@ def set_version(self):
     def pandas_type(self):
         return getattr(self.group._v_attrs, 'pandas_type', None)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->thisPandasObject->NDFrame->DataFrame
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         """ return a pretty representatgion of myself """
         self.infer_axes()
         s = self.shape
@@ -1397,9 +1403,6 @@ def __repr__(self):
                 s = "[%s]" % ','.join([ str(x) for x in s ])
             return "%-12.12s (shape->%s)" % (self.pandas_type,s)
         return self.pandas_type
-    
-    def __str__(self):
-        return self.__repr__()
 
     def set_info(self):
         """ set my pandas type & version """
@@ -1972,12 +1975,12 @@ class PanelStorer(BlockManagerStorer):
     pandas_kind = 'wide'
     obj_type    = Panel
     is_shape_reversed = True
-    
+
     def write(self, obj, **kwargs):
         obj._consolidate_inplace()
         return super(PanelStorer, self).write(obj, **kwargs)
 
-class Table(Storer):
+class Table(com.ReprMixin,Storer):
     """ represent a table:
           facilitate read/write of various types of tables
 
@@ -2013,7 +2016,9 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
     def table_type_short(self):
         return self.table_type.split('_')[0]
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->this
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         """ return a pretty representatgion of myself """
         self.infer_axes()
         dc = ",dc->[%s]" % ','.join(self.data_columns) if len(self.data_columns) else ''
@@ -3049,7 +3054,7 @@ def _need_convert(kind):
         return True
     return False
 
-class Term(object):
+class Term(com.ReprMixin,object):
     """ create a term object that holds a field, op, and value
 
         Parameters
@@ -3153,11 +3158,11 @@ def __init__(self, field, op=None, value=None, queryables=None):
         if len(self.q):
             self.eval()
 
-    def __str__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->this
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         return "field->%s,op->%s,value->%s" % (self.field, self.op, self.value)
 
-    __repr__ = __str__
-
     @property
     def is_valid(self):
         """ return True if this is a valid field """
diff --git a/pandas/stats/ols.py b/pandas/stats/ols.py
index 9ecf5c6ab715f..b46e1c45e15aa 100644
--- a/pandas/stats/ols.py
+++ b/pandas/stats/ols.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 
 from pandas.core.api import DataFrame, Series, isnull
 from pandas.core.common import _ensure_float64
+import pandas.core.common as com
 from pandas.core.index import MultiIndex
 from pandas.core.panel import Panel
 from pandas.util.decorators import cache_readonly
@@ -22,7 +23,7 @@
 _FP_ERR = 1e-8
 
 
-class OLS(object):
+class OLS(com.ReprMixin,object):
     """
     Runs a full sample ordinary least squares regression.
 
@@ -574,7 +575,9 @@ def summary(self):
 
         return template % params
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->OLS
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         return self.summary
 
     @cache_readonly
diff --git a/pandas/stats/var.py b/pandas/stats/var.py
index e993b60e18a39..1b2248874d74c 100644
--- a/pandas/stats/var.py
+++ b/pandas/stats/var.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 from pandas.stats.ols import _combine_rhs
 
 
-class VAR(object):
+class VAR(common.ReprMixin,object):
     """
     Estimates VAR(p) regression on multivariate time series data
     presented in pandas data structures.
@@ -477,7 +477,9 @@ def _sigma(self):
 
         return np.dot(resid, resid.T) / (n - k)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->VAR
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         return self.summary
 
 
diff --git a/pandas/tseries/index.py b/pandas/tseries/index.py
index 25c94900d159c..8c11521923aca 100644
--- a/pandas/tseries/index.py
+++ b/pandas/tseries/index.py
@@ -481,7 +481,9 @@ def _mpl_repr(self):
         # how to represent ourselves to matplotlib
         return tslib.ints_to_pydatetime(self.asi8, self.tz)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    #ReprMixin->Index->Int64Index->DatetimeIndex
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         from pandas.core.format import _format_datetime64
         values = self.values
 
@@ -507,8 +509,6 @@ def __repr__(self):
 
         return summary
 
-    __str__ = __repr__
-
     def __reduce__(self):
         """Necessary for making this object picklable"""
         object_state = list(np.ndarray.__reduce__(self))
diff --git a/pandas/tseries/offsets.py b/pandas/tseries/offsets.py
index 592cc551aeb77..b44df5d2f77fc 100644
--- a/pandas/tseries/offsets.py
+++ b/pandas/tseries/offsets.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 from dateutil.relativedelta import relativedelta
 import pandas.lib as lib
 import pandas.tslib as tslib
+import pandas.core.common as com
 
 __all__ = ['Day', 'BusinessDay', 'BDay',
            'MonthBegin', 'BMonthBegin', 'MonthEnd', 'BMonthEnd',
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@ class CacheableOffset(object):
     _cacheable = True
 
 
-class DateOffset(object):
+class DateOffset(com.ReprMixin, object):
     """
     Standard kind of date increment used for a date range.
 
@@ -107,7 +108,9 @@ def _params(self):
         params = tuple([str(self.__class__)] + attrs)
         return params
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->DateOffset
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         if hasattr(self, 'name') and len(self.name):
             return self.name
 
@@ -230,7 +233,7 @@ def freqstr(self):
         return fstr
 
 
-class BusinessDay(CacheableOffset, DateOffset):
+class BusinessDay(com.ReprMixin,CacheableOffset, DateOffset):
     """
     DateOffset subclass representing possibly n business days
     """
@@ -244,7 +247,7 @@ def __init__(self, n=1, **kwds):
     def rule_code(self):
         return 'B'
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    def __unicode__(self):
         if hasattr(self, 'name') and len(self.name):
             return self.name
 
diff --git a/pandas/tseries/period.py b/pandas/tseries/period.py
index df5eb8743c9c8..6fdc25d27bc8b 100644
--- a/pandas/tseries/period.py
+++ b/pandas/tseries/period.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ def f(self):
     return property(f)
 
 
-class Period(object):
+class Period(com.ReprMixin, object):
 
     __slots__ = ['freq', 'ordinal']
 
@@ -236,17 +236,12 @@ def to_timestamp(self, freq=None, how='start',tz=None):
     def now(cls, freq=None):
         return Period(datetime.now(), freq=freq)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    def __unicode__(self):
         base, mult = _gfc(self.freq)
         formatted = tslib.period_format(self.ordinal, base)
         freqstr = _freq_mod._reverse_period_code_map[base]
         return "Period('%s', '%s')" % (formatted, freqstr)
 
-    def __str__(self):
-        base, mult = _gfc(self.freq)
-        formatted = tslib.period_format(self.ordinal, base)
-        return ("%s" % formatted)
-
     def strftime(self, fmt):
         """
         Returns the string representation of the :class:`Period`, depending
@@ -1013,7 +1008,9 @@ def __array_finalize__(self, obj):
 
         self.freq = getattr(obj, 'freq', None)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    #ReprMixin->Index->Int64Index->PeriodIndex
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         output = str(self.__class__) + '\n'
         output += 'freq: ''%s''\n' % self.freq
         if len(self) > 0:
diff --git a/pandas/util/compat.py b/pandas/util/compat.py
index 41055f48c2fac..adde7a286f082 100644
--- a/pandas/util/compat.py
+++ b/pandas/util/compat.py
@@ -386,7 +386,9 @@ def __delitem__(self, elem):
         if elem in self:
             dict.__delitem__(self, elem)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
+    # ReprMixin->PandasObject->NDFrame->DataFrame
+    # just define unicode, and str,bytes,repr work on py2/py3
+    def __unicode__(self):
         if not self:
             return '%s()' % self.__class__.__name__
         items = ', '.join(map('%r: %r'.__mod__, self.most_common()))