The other morning I noticed that the bathroom ceiling light was out.
I could either call my 6 foot 3 inch husband to change it, or grab a step stool and do it myself. Dear Husband has been busy all summer (and last summer) prepping and painting the exterior of our 100+ year old house. I’d do this thing myself.
Foregoing the relative safety of a step-stool, I climbed up on the toilet to find out what wattage bulb I would need to fetch from the basement. It was a 72 watter, which shines as bright as a 100w bulb, according to the box. While up there I noticed anew how dusty the fan/light fixture was.
Proceeding to the basement, I grabbed the box of light bulbs, and picked up the step-stool on the way back through the kitchen. I got as far as the stairs when I decided to go back to the kitchen for our brand-new vacuum cleaner to take care of the dust. After arriving back at the stairs I couldn’t quite figure out how to carry the light bulbs, the step-stool and the vacuum cleaner all at once, so I left the step-stool.
Of course, I was too lazy to go all the back downstairs for the step-stool, so, much to Dear Husband’s later chagrin, I climbed back up on the toilet and screwed in the new bulb. Now for the vacuum. I found that the polarized plug on the vacuum wouldn’t fit in the ancient outlet in the bathroom, so I found another outlet in the next room. It being my first use of said new vacuum, it took me a minute to figure out how to put the thing together, but it worked very nicely on the fan vents and light cover.
While I’m at it, that heat register has been in need of attention for… a while. (Our house was heated with steam once upon-a-time, and we have charming, but very dusty, iron radiators in every room.) Our nifty, new vacuum carries all its tools on its back, so I found the crevice tool and exchanged it for the duster, and proceeded to relieve the radiator of (ahem) years of cobwebs and dust bunnies.
It’s been a while since anyone has gone around the edges of the upstairs hallway. I’d just do that while I had the vacuum set up. And I might as well go around the edges of the ceiling too. And the bathroom ceiling. The cobwebs in our bedroom have been bugging me for a long time. And the rug could use a good going over with attention to areas that are usually ignored. And the closet hasn’t been vacuumed either. And the radiator in this room could use some attention.
To answer my initial question: it takes about two hours to change a light bulb.
Silver Boxes 
Just got around to reading this, takes me about that long too, but I try to do it under the two. Could picture in my mind all your were doing.