Learning what no one taught us.
Questioning what we grew up believing about health, money, and how we live.
Engineer, learning what no one taught us about health, money, and how we live — and passing it on.
Learn it. Then pass it on.
I went and learned this — I’m a few steps ahead on some things, still figuring out others. I’m not above you and I’m not selling certainty. I’m just sharing what I find as I find it, so you can take what’s useful and pass it on.
LATEST POSTS
From the blog.
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Growing up away from their teachers
My parents left home before they’d finished being raised. What breaks when there’s no one older to watch — and what I’m doing differently now.
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Why I trust data, not dogma: the engineer’s case against low-tox perfectionism
If you’ve spent any time in low-tox spaces online, you’ve met two kinds of advice. One tells you everything in your home is dangerous and you should be afraid. The other hands you a list of approved products and expects you to take it on faith. Neither is how I was trained to make decisions….
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You Don’t Always Have an Hour. That’s Why I Built Two Methods.
One of the first things people ask me when they discover Casa de Chavez is some version of this: “Do I really have to research every single product I buy?” The honest answer is no. And also yes. It depends on the situation. That tension is exactly why I developed two different decision-making tools — one…
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Why I’m Back — And Why Low-Tox Living Matters More Than Ever
I took a break from this blog. Life got busy, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I had the right words yet. Then two of my coworkers died within weeks of each other. And suddenly I had nothing but words. I’m not going to pretend I have a clean explanation for what happened or why. But…
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How to Review Your Product Decisions and Build Low-Tox Expertise Over Time
Casa de Chavez CLEAR Method Series – Step 5: Review and Adjust
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How to Make Trade-Off Decisions Without Guilt: Choosing Between Safety, Budget, and Performance in Low-Tox Living
Casa de Chavez CLEAR Method Series – Step 4: Assess the Trade-offs
BROWSE BY TOPIC
Six places to start.
Low-Tox Foundations
The starting points. What “low-tox” actually means, why it matters, and where to begin without overwhelm.
The Methods
How the CLEAR and STOP methods work in practice — applied to real products, real decisions.
Cleaning
All-purpose, dish, bathroom, surface cleaners. Evaluations, swaps, and DIY alternatives that actually work.
Laundry
Detergents, fabric softeners, dryer sheets. Including the sensitive-skin and allergy-friendly angle.
Kitchen & Cookware
What you cook with and store food in. Cookware materials, plastics, water filtration, food storage.
Home & Air
Mattresses, furniture, textiles, air quality. The bigger investments that affect your home environment.
Hi, I’m Liz.
My parents left Mexico so their kids could have a life they couldn’t. I did what the plan called for — university, engineering degree, a decade in robotics. What nobody could tell me was what came after, because no one in mi familia had ever gotten far enough to find out.
So I started learning the things that were never handed to us — about health, money, and how we live — mostly by being wrong first, then researching my way to something better. Now I share what I find as I go, so you can take what’s useful and pass it on.
None of it is a correction of how I was raised. My parents’ sacrifice was step one. This is step two.