Cleaned out my chimney today for the first time, in umm, 3 years. I know it was way way overdue. I cleaned out the stove of all the ashes completely. I looked down it with a flashlight and thought to myself, boy that looks pretty clean. But I swept it out anyway. Went back down to the stove to see how much crap came out and to my surprise there was less than a cup. I'm wondering if this has to do with the fact that I burn almost exclusively cottonwood? At any rate I'm gonna keep tabs on my chimney more often now just because it's good practice.