Usually Maintenance; the act or effort of keeping something in good and working condition.
I would enjoy having a swimming pool, but I don't want to deal with the upkeep.
[…] it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable land, which saved a lot of labour on the upkeep of hedges and gates.1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
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The story of upkeep has been never-ending. Between 1997-2000, a major programme of maintenance entailed replacing superstructure timbers - 50 main rail beams were replaced with greenheart, along with a similar number of edge beams.2020 August 12, Andrew Mourant, “The tide is turning for a Victorian wonder”, in Rail, page 51:
upkeep
verb
Etymology From up + keep.
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UK To maintain (something) or keep it in good repair.
Do you know how to upkeep a boat?
As for the city's buildings, it mostly resembled a town of white spires and cobblestone streets lined with flowerbeds that were upkept by magical means.2014, James Blackthorne, Meditations of Madness: The Lost Empires Exposed: