So it’s springtime now, and that means that for at least most of the country, the weather is getting much nicer out! And when the weather gets warm you get to do things like put away your coat, stop shoveling the driveway, and...sadly, no more fireplace! Yes, even if it is a major fixture of your living room, it’s time to face facts: it’s going to be too darn warm soon to bother with roaring fires, or at least ones indoors! So if you’re ready to say goodbye to your fireplace for another six months or so, here’s a couple tips to clean it out and keep it that way until it’s time to light it up again: Inspect The Chimney: The chimney is the part of the chimney that can gather the most filth and accumulation, so you’ll want to start by giving the chimney a good once-over. Take a flashlight and look up into the chimney to see what’s built up in there; if it’s just a brown or black powder, it’s soot which will be much easier to clean. If you see a lot of shiny, hardened black deposits, that could be creosote, which will be much harder to get rid of. Give Everything A Good Scraping: If your chimney looks like it needs a hand, you’ll want to handle this before you get to the rest of the fireplace. Grab a circular metal chimney brush and brush all the way up to the flue, a small trap door leading into the rest of the chimney that usually needs the most cleaning. Scoop Out The Ashes: After the chimney gets scrubbed out, you probably have a lot of crud down in your fireplace itself. Before you get out the brushes and spray cleaner, get a bucket and a small shovel or scooper of some kind to get the bigger ashes out of the fireplace. This will make it much easier to do a deep cleaning later when all the debris has been cleared. Get Brushing!: The best tool for scrubbing the inside of a fireplace is a wire brush like you’d use for cleaning a grill. Mix some baking soda and/or vinegar into a bucket of warm water, start as high as you can, and work down to the bottom so the ash doesn’t get away from you. Clean The Outside: After you get the inside of the fireplace, you probably got some soot on the outside - don’t blame yourself, it happens! Get a more gentle brush or rag for your fireplace mantle and use that same baking soda and vinegar scrub to clean any residue off of your mantle or the outer edge of your fireplace where any crud might have accumulated. After this, your fireplace should be cleaned and ready to go when fall comes back around and there’s a chill in the air - but there’s no time to think about that now, spring is here, so get out there and enjoy it while you can!