Mornings in our house are currently looking like this: roll out of bed, grab some breakfast, brush our teeth, and head out the door.

On our way out, I yell out a bunch of activities, like clothes bag, reading bag, baseball bag, swim bag, piano bag, or whatever the day’s adventures may be or might possibly be.

It’s the kids’ job to pack up these bags the night before with everything they might need for the day, and they resemble small pack mules as they head out to the car. Summer turns us into bag people.

When my kids were little, and we only had an activity or two a week, or they were heading to their grandparents’ house, they had a little backpack that we’d fill up with whatever they needed to take with them.

As activities became more elaborate, and involved more equipment, the task of packing and unpacking that bag became rather onerous. They also tended to dump out whatever the previous cargo was in some random spot in the house, and the next week, after an arduous search, we’d finally find the stray shin guard under the piano.

Soon, we realized that it would make more sense to have one bag per activity. This system was life-changing. I even paid a little extra for the embroidery, and lo and behold, we have a bag for E’s “Dancin’ Shoes” and G’s (insert soccer ball logo here) bag, and now, I can be sure that even if I have to be the one to grab a bag, I know whose it is and which equipment it contains.

The kids have recycled their school year backpacks into bags that contain a few books, a few coloring or work books, and maybe a small toy or two for entertainment purposes whenever downtime might strike.

The Wonderful Husband installed a rack right next to the entry way, so that bags could be hung up directly upon walking in the house, and grabbed right on the way out of the house. The bags come equipped with either a little hook or a strap, which makes hanging them up a snap.

For the activities that need special shoes, the shoe rack is located right next to the rack, so that shoes can be easily located. I’ve also picked up several pair of inexpensive slides and flip-flops that can be tucked in the bag so that muddy shoes can be left outside to get hosed off or cleats don’t have to be worn home.

It’s a great system, that has the potential to save a lot of time and frustration when we don’t have to case the house from top to bottom to find equipment and when we have everything we need in one central location.

Unfortunately, my kids lack the discipline to make it work. Why use a hook on the wall, when you can just dump things in a pile on the floor? Why keep the safety strap for your glasses in the designated pocket in your bag when you can leave it on the kitchen table? Why take 5 seconds to take those cleats off when you can tromp into the back seat and stamp all over your sister’s feet with them?

Occasionally, just for fun, maybe decide to use your dance bag as your swim bag, and then throw a hissy fit when you forgot to transfer that special pair of goggles that you always wear from the swim bag!

One of my favorite ways that this plan went off the rails is when the kids got little draw string bags from the library that instantly became their “library bags.” After having to spend a small fortune in fines when E casually inserted a library book onto our regular book shelf, it became a rule that the library books live in either the bag, or their hands, and nowhere else.

Unfortunately, the kids got randomly colored bags. One of the other tricks I’ve incorporated is making sure that if I can’t get a name or other identifying marks put on the bag, I try to pick a color that I associate with each kid. E gets pinks, purples, or something glittery. The boys usually get something in a nice shade of camo or their favorite colors. The library bags were blue, green, and maroon. No one seems to remember which color belongs to whom and we have frequently gone on a road trip only to find that E grabbed the book bag that belongs to A or vice versa.

It’s not the perfect system, but it’s a work in progress and we’re all getting better at using it.

For example, I now remember that in addition to “trumpet bag,” which carries all the music for the trumpet, I also need to remember to say “trumpet,” so we don’t wind up at lessons with music and no instrument.

We have a few more months to work on this, but I’m hoping that by July, we have summer in the bag.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.