It’s easy to clean your own chimney - if you don’t mind getting dirty. You can find an appropriate-size chimney brush at a hardware or wood stove store. Lay a drop cloth in your fireplace or at the base of your chimney to catch the falling creosote. Push the brush up the chimney, scrubbing back and forth as you go. One method to try is 2′ up, 1′ back. The brush comes with flexible nylon rods; add these to the handle to extend your reach as you push the brush farther up the chimney. Immediately after you finish, clean up all the creosote you’ve knocked loose before you track it through the house.
You can also clean a chimney by climbing up on the roof and pushing the brush down the chimney, if that’s more convenient and your chimney has no cap.
Another way to clean your chimney is to use a small fir tree. Go up on the roof and drop a rope down the chimney. Then go inside the house and tie the rope to the stump of the fir tree. Go back onto the roof and pull the tree up the chimney. Then drop the rope back down into the chimney, go inside the house and haul the tree back down. Or work with a partner and save yourself several trips to the roof and back.

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