The single best maintenance you can do to increase the life of your skates is to ensure they are dried off properly.
All too often, skaters take off their skates, place soakers over the blades, and throw in their bag until next time. HUGE no-no, lol.
I tend to do the following after each skate:
1. Wipe down the blades with a soft cotton towel. I usually have a hand towel in my bag, so I wipe off the excess water on the blades, and also wipe around the blade, the sole, and quickly over my boot. This literally takes all of 20 seconds per skate.
2. I place soakers on the blades...always make sure they are dry. If you skate several times per day, perhaps two different soakers will work so you always have a dry pair handy. I know some people that turn theirs inside out.
3. I'm usually either at the office or home directly from skating. In either case I always make sure my skates are taken out of my bag and placed out to dry. At home, I usually have my fan running, so I have this nice, cool spot where I can place my skates to air dry. If I'm in my office, I usually put my skates in the corner and take home with me at the end of the day. I avoid, at all costs, just leaving them in my trunk and out of the bag since there's no air circulation.
4. This is not exactly part of the other 3, but kinda in-line. I always check my blades before I lace up my skates. I do a quick wiggle test to make sure the blade isn't loose or shifting on the boot. A common issue with skaters that don't properly dry their skates is water getting stuck between the blade and boot, which will eventually strip out the screws.
As a side note, some skate specialists will permanently mount the blade with a layer of silicon between the sole and the blade plate. Other specialists will simply make sure the sole is water-proofed and screw in the blades. If you have a silicon layer, eventually the silicon will come out and it will cause your blade to come slightly loose. Usually, you'll simply need to tighten the screws on the blade, but keep an eye out to make sure the blade doesn't *shift* from the original mounting. Just mentioning since the positioning of the mounting can be the difference between skating well and skating badly.