sorting categories

I see threads on this but I'm not understanding.

I have a list of categories in an editor.
I have another editor list of items and one of the fields is the category list dropdown, pulling from the category table.

I am listing all categories and items on my page just fine. They are in the order of my items editor.

I am also listing all categories as links in the sidebar. The category links in the sidebar are in the order that I drag them in the editor. This is what I want. Unfortunately, that doesnt change the category sort order in the items in the viewer. They remain in the order of my items editor list.

How do I sort the whole viewer by the categories? I still want all items under each category to be sorted by dragSortOrder. The point is to be able to quickly put the 5th category as category 1 in the viewer if I want.