Having an organized inventory in World of Warcraft can make a big difference in how efficiently you play the game. The default bag sorting can get messy pretty quickly, especially as you acquire more gear, consumables, trade goods, and other items. Fortunately, resetting your bag sorting is easy to do.
What is bag sorting?
Bag sorting refers to the way items are arranged in your backpack and bags. By default, new items you acquire will go into the first available slot in your inventory. However, as you use and deposit items, empty slots get created throughout your bags.
This can make your inventory feel cluttered and unorganized. Items you use often, like healing potions or engineering gadgets, get buried under trade goods, quest items, and gear.
Bag sorting allows you to customize how your bags are organized by designating specific types of items to always fill certain slots first. This keeps your most used items in consistent spots for easy access.
Why reset bag sorting?
Over time, your customized bag sorting rules can become inefficient or simply not match how you currently play. Gear sets change as you level up or switch specs. Different consumables and trade goods dominate various phases of progression.
Resetting your bag sorting gives you a fresh start to organize your bags in a way that matches your current priorities. Here are some common reasons to reset bag sorting in WoW:
- Your sorting rules don’t match your current gear set or role
- Important items like consumables are buried under trade goods or quest items
- You want to group items in new ways as your gameplay changes
- Your bags feel cluttered and disorganized
- Returning to WoW after a break, previous rules are outdated
Resetting bag sorting only takes a minute and allows you to reclaim control over your inventory organization. This can save you lots of time over having to dig through clutter looking for important items.
How to reset bag sorting
Resetting your bag sorting rules is simple no matter what class or profession you play. Here are the steps:
- Open your main backpack
- At the top, click the bag sort button (arrow icon)
- In the sorting menu, click the “Reset All Bags” button
- Confirm the reset in the popup window
That’s it! With those few clicks, all of your customized bag sorting rules will be erased.
Result of resetting bags
After resetting your bags, all items will now follow the default sorting behavior:
- New items go into the first available slot
- Items stack where possible
- Empty slots appear where items are used up or deposited
Your bags will likely seem pretty chaotic at first as everything gets shuffled around. But now you have a blank slate to set up new sorting rules.
Setting up new bag sorting rules
With your bags reset, you can now set up new sorting rules tailored to your current needs. Here are some tips:
- Put your most used items like healing potions and gadgets near the top
- Group similar item types together like trade goods or consumables
- Make rules specific to your class, role, or playstyle
- Adjust rules as your gameplay changes and priorities evolve
To setup sorting rules:
- Control-click an item to open the sorting menu
- Click “Assign To” to give it a category like “Consumables” or “Gems”
- Repeat for each category you want to create
Items assigned to those categories will always sort to the spots designated. Here are some common item types players like to categorize:
| Item type | Example categories |
|---|---|
| Consumeables | Food, Flasks, Potions |
| Profession materials | Herbs, Ore, Cloth, Dust |
| Quest items | Quest items, Keys |
| Gear | Armor, Weapons, Jewelry |
Take the time to set up categories and assignments that make sense for your bags. This investment will pay off with much faster inventory management in the future.
When to reset bags
As your gameplay evolves, your bag sorting needs to evolve too. Here are some times you may want to reset your bag sorting rules:
- Gearing up for endgame – Reset rules to focus on endgame consumables, materials, and gear.
- Switching specs or roles – Create rules tailored to your new playstyle.
- New phase/expansion – Reset to prioritize new gear, consumables, materials.
- Returning from a break – Old rules likely don’t match your current needs.
- Too much clutter – Reset as a clean slate to reorganize.
As a rule of thumb, resetting your bag sorting whenever your in-game priorities change is a good habit. The small upfront time investment saves you lots of time down the road.
Tips for efficient bag sorting
Here are some additional tips to keep your bags organized after resetting:
- Categorize broadly – Too many categories creates clutter. Stick to 6-8 broad groups.
- Be consistent – Follow the same categorization across all bags and alts.
- Leave room to grow – Allocate more slots for frequently filled groups.
- Put junk in its own category – Items you’re selling or deleting.
- Reassess often – Tweak rules as your priorities change.
With a thoughtful bag reset and sorting strategy, you can spend less time organizing and more time enjoying the game. Experiment to find a system that works for your playstyle.
Conclusion
Resetting your bag sorting in WoW only takes a moment but has huge organizational benefits. Cluttered, outdated sorting rules lead to wasted time digging for important items.
Do a reset whenever your gameplay priorities evolve to keep your inventory optimized. Take the time to set up thoughtful categories and assignments tailored to your class, role, and activities.
With a frequently reset and organized set of bags, you can spend more time on the fun parts of World of Warcraft and less time playing “Where’d I put that potion?”.