How did man try to organize things in the past?

I'm not sure if you mean "How did man try to organize things?" or "Which ways did man try to organize things which is different from it is now?".

Obviously we try to sort things out alphabetically and numerically, to sort things in chronological order, in weight order (the Periodic Table does this), from simple to complicated. When sorting out creatures things are near to each other (in evolution terms). We think of people in terms of classes-usually working, middle and upper classes.