every year when we light up the fire place everything in the house gets all black is there anything i can do to stop this

bill, January 2010

have the chimney swept, depending on the size and height of chimney you may not have sufficient draw to extract the smoke particles fully, but you can get a extractor gizzmo you fit in the shape of a twisted round ball that spins in the slightest wind BREEZE this increases the DRAW up the chimney

wirecutterman, January 2010

Bill you exaggerate I think - just some things will get a bit black - not everything all black surely?

The black may be...

Dirty hand prints
Mould
Soot

You need to work out which it is because the solution for each is different.

If it's mainly on the walls it will probably be mould - warm wet air and insufficient ventilation makes condensation and mould - plenty on here about mould - the search box on this page may help you...

Good luck...

Peccavi, January 2010