Regular maintenance is an aspect of historic preservation that is often overlooked as a simple obligation or another box to check. However, as a process that requires frequent interaction with structures and resources, its potential benefits are myriad. When approached as an active tool of engagement rather than a passive process born of necessity, preservation maintenance can represent the most cost-effective and minimally invasive method of protecting historic resources. This thesis examines the history and development of the concept of “preservation maintenance” through the lens of Preservation Maintenance Guides (PMG) and argues for a more standardized approach to their creation and implementation, particularly when applied to properties owned and operated by the US National Park Service (NPS). In the US, the process of preliminary historical documentation for historic and cultural resources has been codified into regulation for more than half a century in the form of Historic Structure Reports, but currently no standardized process exists to guide stewardship once work begins on-site. Through critical assessment of a wide range of PMGs created both domestically and abroad since the mid-1970s, this thesis makes recommendations for how such a process of standardization may be accomplished in a way that maximizes cost-efficiency, small-scale intervention, and resource integrity. To put those concepts into practice, also included is a case study centered around the creation of a PMG for the historic wooden structures at Catoctin Mountain Park, an NPS site in Thurmont, Maryland.