Ben Hatch, an exceptional blogger and father to 11-year-old Phoebe, calls his ‘efforts to renew his daughter’s passport’ a comical farce.

You’ll better understand the predicament once you read how Hatch fished out around £82 and over a week only to have his daughter’s passport declined due to the picture background being ‘not distinct enough.’

Hatch’s story is one among millions that depict the struggles of maintaining the documents, digital or otherwise, for a family. Visa renewals, residence certificate renewals, passport re-verification deadlines-the list can seem never-ending, the processes excruciatingly painful.
Well, what do you assume we’re here for? Let’s discuss some of our tips around organizing your family’s document stack.

1. Get Rid of Paper
Who wants an organised life? Virtually everyone. Who wants to spend days sorting out file cabinets, storage drawers, old cupboards, and paper-filled boxes, uploading the docs, and arranging them online, preferably on a cloud service, complete with a backup and categorized into individual sections?
Not many, I suppose.
However, organizing household information online has its advantages. It’s easily accessible. It’s easier to maintain than paperwork. And despite the initial investment of time that it demands, it’s very advantageous at the time of a crisis. The advantages include:
• Time-saving
• Clutter elimination
• Peace of mind, considering you don’t have to fear losing documents in a fire, flood, tornado, or theft

2. Categorize
On a basic level, every paper that you’ll ever own will fall into one of the following three categories, says Diane Harris.
• That you need to keep for a year or less
• That you need for the window during which your tax returns are likely to be audited
• That you need for a lifetime, like your birth certificate
So, what do you think you should do with the ATM receipts, credit-card receipts, deposit receipts, pay check stubs, and other such papers?
That’s right. Chuck them out the window and into a recyclable dustbin.

3. Set up deadline reminders
Documents expire. Your driving license, residence permit, lease agreement, work permit, they all have a window of time after which their authenticity has to be established via renewal. Forgetting the expiration date is not an option.
Then, you have the other kinds of deadlines. Paying utility bills, paying the house help or any employees you have, preparing for the kid’s school activities and arrangements that need to be made for the same, etc.
The point-you will need to set up reminders for different kinds of deadlines so that you can be armed with the right set of the documents required to seal the deal. It’ll save your time and keep you up to date on the document renewals.

Automating Expiry Reminders and Aladdinpro

You can try different types of calendar apps for this kind of scheduling. However, the problem is the lack of a dashboard view and the possibility of attaching a digital version of the documents to the reminders.

Aladdinpro advantages:

• User-friendly design
• Scalable services
• Multi-user support
• Cross-platform notifications
• Secure
• Document Storage
• Team Collaboration

Aladdinpro can simplify your document renewals by automating the deadline notifications for you. With it, you can prepare for upcoming expiration and avoid the stress that comes with the hustle and bustle of a deadline looming overhead.