My mom bought a house in 1974. The mortgage lender changed hands numerous times.

My mom was old school and would keep every single canceled check in shoe boxes. In the old school paper trail world, banks would stamp checks when they cashed them, and you could receive these “canceled” checks with your monthly mailed statement (not sure if it was automatic or optional, but it probably depended on how much you were paying for your checking account).

The checks were cashed, not voided or otherwise stopped, so whoever cashed them in was still paid; they were just canceled so they couldn’t be cashed a second time, and kept as a paper trail.

She did this for thirty years.

When it finally came down to a few more months left, the last lender sent notice that a bunch of months had never been received, and they now owed thousands in arrears.

She simply copied the checks in question and sent them to the lender, along with a note stating that they expect to be sent the deed within thirty days of the final payment of the last check, and then got on with her day, completely unbothered.

The lender reluctantly sent her the deed with one day to spare.