When I was young, I spent a few summers working on a factory floor. That is where I learned how seriously maintenance plans are taken when machines actually matter.
Every machine had a plan. Some parts had to be cleaned daily, others had to be oiled weekly, checked every few months, or taken apart once a year for proper maintenance. It was not random, and it was not done only when something broke. It was part of keeping the whole factory running.
I think we should treat our Orgs in a very similar way:
Every major part of your org should have a maintenance plan. Core Objects, Flows, Integrations, Permission Sets, Reports, Dashboards, Page Layouts, Record Types, and anything else that is important enough to run your business.
Every time you build something new, you add it to the plan. Who owns it? When should it be reviewed? What needs to be checked? When was it last cleaned up? Is it still used? Is it still fit for purpose?
This makes maintenance much easier to manage, because it stops being a one-off panic project and becomes part of normal operations. You can spread the work across the year, assign ownership, and communicate to management that this is not random cleanup work. It is planned maintenance for a business-critical platform.
Factories do not run well without maintenance plans, Salesforce Orgs do not either.
Book a free 60-minute Salesforce Technical Debt Audit: a score for Usability and Build Quality, and your top cleanup priorities.